


Madness and Meihem in the Outback

by Danowsawa



Series: Overwatched [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Coming Out of Your Shell, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Introversion, Shyness, Unexpected Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-02 13:04:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11510016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danowsawa/pseuds/Danowsawa
Summary: Sent down to Australia to study and save the irradiated landscape, Mei-Ling soon finds herself in the middle of a struggle between rival factions of insane junkers, all vying for a place in this savior's plans to return Australia to its former glory. However, when she's captured, instead, by a pair of yobbos, the whole of the Outback sets its sights on them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This amazing cover art was made by Kittybaka-chan over on DeviantArt. Go check out all of his other art! Quite a few other pieces of Meihem art that are all perfect :D

_“I continued the work on my ‘Cerebral Projector’ (funny name, right?!) that I started back in my college days (which you don’t need a date on!). Until my original lab is fully operational again, it gives me a chance to work on more personal projects (you know, like that snow cone gun everybody writes to me about??) so I’m very excited to come back to this Projector!_

_Farewell! Especially if you’re running a bus company!_

_\--Mei-Ling Zhou_  
\-------------------------------------------

Mei energetically pushed herself against her desk, sending the rolling chair beneath her skidding across the room, though not far enough to reach her destination. Her face contorted in determination as she grasped the seat and pitter-pattered her feet against the floor, slowly making her way over until once again coming face-to-face with her spherical ‘Cerebral Projector’- a project she’d grown quite fond of since making some rather important progress on it.

She pulled it into her lap and whipped out a small wrench-like tool, poking and prodding at the inner workings of the metallic ball, her lips bending to one side as her eyes narrowed in focus. Her tiny drone flew by to watch, having finished its previous task of formatting the blog post Mei had just completed.

“Thanks, Snowball!” she exclaimed as she worked her tool around various wires and circuit boards, “Right now I’m trying to link up the motherboard with the front ports. I’d like to make it project independent of any peripherals, but for now, I’ll just settle with projecting, uh, you know, to monitors and stuff.”

Nearly losing her train of thought within that dense collection of technology, she sighed in relief as she finished up, “Great! Can you get me a USB to HDMI cord?”

Snowball made an agreeable whirring sound as its digital eyes rose in a happy expression, its tiny body lightly floating across the room. In the meantime, Mei finished reconstructing the outer shell of the device, patting it affectionately as she nodded approvingly of her work.

“This could revolutionize psychology, neurology; everything!” she exclaimed aloud, carefully placing the spherical ball of tech onto her desk as Snowball returned. Hooking the device up to her monitor, she held her hand against a small grove in the Cerebral Projector, studying the screen as she played certain thoughts through her mind.

Nothing.

She groaned, “Well, looks like we need something more. Ugh.”

Shaking her head dejectedly, Mei sighed as she spun around in her chair, “I was hoping it would pick up the correct biorhythms and pulses of nerves that time, but it wasn’t even picking those up! Snowball, what am I going to do?”

The small drone’s face fell into a pair of sad eyes as it lowered down against Mei, gingerly rubbing against her face, which only caused her to laughed, “Okay! Okay! I’ll just take a break and come back to it…again.”

She stood up and walked toward the door, though only to make her way around a desk. Instead of leaving her dark lab, she walked toward a couch she’d brought herself, hopping into it as she reached for a controller, turning a nearby television onto some show or something. She sighed as her mind remained on her little project, though she only snuggled with a pillow as she sunk into the couch, dejectedly.

Since coming to Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Mei had barely left the quiet confines of her laboratory, though it easily doubled as a workshop with all the technician work she also performed. Despite inviting her himself, Winston would often forget she was there himself; though, on the times he would invite her to escape sometimes, she simply laughed and waved it off.

Her true headquarters, however, was down in Antarctica, where one of Overwatch’s few environmentally-minded Watchpoints was, though, in a devastating storm, all of the people she had worked with, and grown to consider family in that isolation, had all perished. In a desperate attempt to wait for aid, they’d all cryogenically frozen themselves, and in those ten years of waiting, all but one had died in their stasis.

Mei often tried not thinking about it, though it was one of the reasons she was so dedicated to this Cerebral Projector. The purpose of the device was to be a non-obtrusive method of projecting one’s thoughts and memories, hopefully including ones that the individual user couldn’t fully recall.

She could remember the names, voices, and personalities of her old colleagues, but she had devastatingly found that she could not remember their faces. So, while her project may have started sadly enough, it had grown into a device she had hoped could help amnesia patients or others with psychological issues.

Still, despite her work, save for a major breakthrough or two, she still had nothing to show for it. Sometimes she would ask Winston for some assistance, but even he was flabbergasted by some of the stuff she was doing, and after a single visit to Tracer’s small workshop, which was where she built model planes, Mei had decided not to risk her device in the hands of a being who teleported through time and space so recklessly.

Mei wrapped a blanket around herself as she rested her head on her pillow, her eyes focusing seriously on the screen in front of her, one of her favorite characters facing certain death. One of her reasons for her solitude was her adversity to the Gibraltar heat, and as long as she remained in her small lab, she could crank the a/c as low as she cared. Though, on the other hand, she was also very solitary herself, choosing the company of a blanket and coffee over most humans.

Upon arriving to Gibraltar, Winston had suggested that she begin writing a journal and offering it to be viewed online for the masses. As one of her only close friends, Winston knew of her lovable personality, and figured having such a friendly person as a face of Overwatch couldn’t possibly hurt, at least not any more than already was the case, as Overwatch was ‘officially’ disbanded.

Mei sighed, relieved, as her character had just managed to escape their demise, dramatically throwing her head back. She reached for her cup of tea, her eyes not daring to leave the television. Pulling it back over toward her, the flexi-straw poked her in the face as she was unable to direct it, though after another few pokes, she’d managed to aim it at her mouth properly.

Suddenly, the small receiver she’d carried with her at all times began sputtering to life, and she hurriedly paused the show, turning at the small radio curiously, the scruffy voice of Winston sounding out, “Mei? You there?”

She reached for the small device and pushed the small tab at its side, “Yes sir!”

“The new recruit is here; would you like to meet-“

He paused, quietly biding his time before going on, “-you fell off the couch, didn’t you?”

“N-N-N-No!” she stammered nervously as she picked herself up off the ground, “I-I love meeting new, uh… people.”

Winston chuckled lightly over the radio, “I mean, you don’t have to. Angela’s here too, so I mean, you could possibly finagle seeing her again without running into a new face.”

Mei’s lips tightened in frustration at her own introversion, “A-Are you trying to entice me, sir?”

Winston reply came with a voice that could easily been seen by Mei as accompanying a shrug, “I was just saying is all. I was just curious is all. How’s your work coming?”

Mei sighed, happy that her personality was no longer up for discussion, “Good, I guess. I’ll keep getting more and more burnt out, though, if I don’t start getting results… I’m itching to do more climatological studies.”

“Ah, yes,” Winston replied, wonderingly, “Your heart belongs to the atmosphere and all that it surrounds, right?”

“J-Just because you can hunt down my old high school poetry doesn’t mean you can just quote them out of nowhere!”

Winston chuckled before signing off, “Alright, alright. Hey, I’ve gotta meet this Fareeha lady; I’ll leave you to it. Good luck!”

“Tha-“ Mei replied, lightly, as her radio clicked off, “Thank you…”

She sighed to herself as she fell back into her couch, pulling her legs up and crossing them as she pulled out her phone, only watching it sadly. Snowball levitated down toward her, rubbing against her cheek again, though eliciting much less of a response from his maker.

“Thanks Snowball,” Mei muttered quietly, “But this issue requires more than tickles to fix.”

Like most things, Mei’s emotions were much more easily expressed through writing. She swiped through her phone, opening up her personal journal- the one kept private and available only to her. Sadly, her fingers hovered over the keyboard, unable to find a starting point for the longest time.

\----------  
I’m so distant and quiet (not that you’d know, diary). I love being able to live so self-sufficiently, but… I hate this inability to easily deal with new people. I hate being so shy…  
\----------

She groaned, tossing her phone onto the couch, frustrated with her poor writing and, more so, her lack of insight of her own feelings. She simply grabbed the controller again, continuing on to watching her show, though her sadness continued to grapple at her attention.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

Some hours later, the head of Mei poked out from the kitchen, carefully checking down both ends of the hallway. Her eyes skeptically scanned the area as she stepped out through the door, pulling off her coat and dropping it onto a nearby chair, left there for such a purpose. Carefully enough, she made her way down the hallway, knowing full well how much these hallways echoed.

Turning a corner, her eyes trailed further down the previous hallway, not keeping up with her change in direction and, sure enough, her body ran straight into a massive force, knocking her backward onto the ground. She looked up quickly to see a rather burly woman, just managing to regain her balance above her.

“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” Mei repeated as she took to her feet, rapidly reaching out to examine the unfamiliar person.

The tan woman laughed, pushing her hands back, “No, it’s fine. I was more worried about you; are you okay?”

“F-Fine!” Mei repeated, loudly, catching the newcomer off guard, “Oh… You must be, uh, Faree-“

She hid her face behind her hands to hide her embarrassment at forgetting her name, “Ah! I’m sorry!”

Faree- grinned, bending down to collect the few items that had fallen out of Mei’s hands during the crash, “Like I said, it’s fine. I’m Fareeha Amari. I’m actually new here; I was told to go to the green room to prepare for training? You’re the first person I’ve seen to ask, though.”

Mei slowly moved her hands away, though made an “Eep!” noise upon realizing Fareeha had gathered her belongings for her, “Th-Thank you!”

Waving her off further, Fareeha assured her, “It’s fine, you know? Anyway, could you direct me to the green room? I’m already late as it is, I’m sure.”

Mei remained quiet, staring down at the bag she’d reclaimed from Fareeha as if not able to hear the guest’s words. Fareeha watched her curiously, not wanting to either insult her or bother her by repeating herself. Instead, she looked around again, her face twisted in thought.

“Ah, maybe it’s down here,” she muttered to herself, “Sorry again for running into you…ma’am; I’ll keep my eyes on the road from now on.”

Before she could walk off, however, Mei suddenly perked back to life, “S-Sorry! I was just, uh, thinking. The green room is the left there, just past the, uh, locker rooms.”

“Oh, hey thanks!” Fareeha replied, happily as she stepped away, “Oh, if you’re watching a sad movie or something, try some wafers- the crunch really helps deter tears. At least if my roommate was any indication.”

Mei watched her curiously, “How did you, uh…”

“Well, your bag,” Fareeha explained, “You got ice cream and a bunch of sweets and stuff. I just figured you seemed the type to binge watch stuff, right?”

“N-N-No!” Mei replied, nervously, “Nothing like that! Just, you know… There’s this one show, ‘Some Like It Botter’…”

“Ah ha!” Fareeha exclaimed with a grin, “My roommate back at Helix watched that whole series. I thought it was the dumbest thing…uh, no offense. I kept catching glimpses of it though, and woefully began watching it with her. That explains a lot though, for sure. Just get through season eight and you’ll be good to go, alright?”  
Fareeha held out a hand for a high-five, which Mei gingerly reciprocated as the newbie continued, “Hey, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh! Uh, I’m Mei-Ling…”

“Wait, the Mei-Ling from the blog online?” Fareeha questioned, shocked, “Wow! You seem so different in person! Oh, no offense or anything.”

Mei shrugged, “N-No. I get that a lot...”

Fareeha watched her, carefully, before starting off again, “Hey, I’ll see you around. As long as they keep me around, that is.”

She snickered to herself, shaking her head, “It’s not like it’s my life-long dream or anything!”

As she vanished into another hallway, Mei slowly began to recoup herself, having exerted quite a bit of energy in simply speaking to another human being. She turned around to head back to her own space, careful to avoid anybody else. Still, she whipped out her phone, jotting down some words before sending her message off to Winston.

“She seems like a good person,” was all she had written.


	2. Chapter 2

We’re getting closer to my project’s completion (hooray!) but have been stalled somewhat by Overwatch’s reinstatement (OH BOY!!). I hope that doesn’t mean I’ll have to stop writing for you all (:sad face:) but with these funds and the UN’s backing, I’ll have my sights set on much larger ventures (like Mars! But not really…)

On the docket, firstly, is taming Australia (crikey!) which, of course, has been a wasteland since its Omnium’s destruction. Hopefully we can bring it back to life (:fingers crossed!:).

Keep an ion further updates, friends!  
Mei-Ling  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Outback wasn’t much different from where it had been decades ago, though for one majorly deadly aspect of it. It was still blisteringly hot in the summers, and on its best days it was incredibly dry, drier than a “dead dingo’s donger”, as the local Junkers would say in impolite conversation. Since the Omnium had been blown up, the nuclear reactor powering the place had gone up too, releasing the deadliest of fallouts across the landscape.

This radiation had become the silent killer down under. While most of the population had quickly died out, usually the youngest and oldest of them, what was left were large assortments of “Junkers”- collections of people forced into roaming the landscapes, scavenging, waging battles with rival Junker factions for food or supplies. It had become more of a warzone- one that nobody had much of any interest in helping.

Then, suddenly, Overwatch had been reinstated. While mainly focused on battling Talon’s interests, as well as quelling any sort of rebellious Omnic factions, many of Overwatch’s higher-ups felt they had a more proper, more noble cause to handle, though not with zero help from Mei, who herself wrote a passionate letter to Mrs. Adawe, explaining her sympathy for the Earth itself.

“Why fight for a world that may no longer be here to fight for?” was the theme of her small manifesto, and Adawe was rather quick to sympathize as well, allocating some resources to R&D regarding, what Mei had considered to be, their first major issue- the inability of life to thrive, at least easily, on one of the world’s biggest chucks of landmass.

This is why Mei found herself sitting in a small hovel of a building, having sacrificed her beloved coat for a measly tank-top, staring off into the orange, drab landscape outside the window. Her eyelids sunk in lethargy as she leaned back in her chair, her throat already parched, even though she had just taken a drink of water.

She groaned, reaching for her chrome water container, taking a sip as she lazily reached over for her phone, which had a small rag beside it which she also grasped for. She scrolled through it before tapping on Winston’s face, dropping the rag atop of the phone and holding it to the side of her head, her eyes narrowing in exhaustion.

“Oh! Hi there, Mei! How goes the Outback?!” Winston sounded aloud, enthusiastically.

Not amused, Mei groaned deeply, “When I sent that letter, I wasn’t expecting to be sent down here myself…”

Winston chuckled over the phone, “Well, you wanted the most funds possible for research, right? Speaking of, how it is going?”

Mei lazily rolled her chair across the small room, approaching a small desk where she’d been working on soil samples, “Uhh… Well, my theory was to genetically engineer plants that feed off of radiation and output clean air- but then I realized that nothing green grows out here. I suppose through irrigation, maybe, but…”

She groaned, throwing her head backwards, “It’s too hot here! I can barely get anything done anyway!”

“Hmm,” came Winston’s unassuming voice, “Well, we have Fareeha coming down to help out. Perhaps on your little excursion, you might come up with a breakthrough; that should get you going, right?”

“Ugh. I guess,” Mei replied, tiredly, “When should I be expecting her arrival?”

Winston paused as he checked his computer, “Uh… Possibly this evening? With the Junkers out there, I don’t want you exploring alone- I would much rather you have some firepower of your own.”

“Yeah, yeah; I understand,” Mei replied lazily, reaching for her small ice-gun, pulling its trigger toward her face as small ice crystals flew at her, “Just let her know to be prepared.”

“I- Yes, she was very excited, actually- she said that she’d much prefer the heat, actually. Said it reminds her of home,” Winston laughed, “So, you may have met your match!”

Mei grimaced, “Some people are just weird. And, yes, I’m aware. ‘I’m one to talk’.”

Winston made a noise that sounded like him smiling, “You’ll do fine. Hey, let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“A snowstorm,” Mei replied, though it quickly forced her to drop into a dark expression, though Winston chuckled nonetheless as he hung up.

Remembering that snowstorm that had taken so many of her friends, Mei simply remained in her seat for a few moments, mulling. She found it odd that, while she had so many negative emotions revolving around cold climates, she still preferred them; though, it wasn’t as if she blamed the weather for her colleague’s deaths. 

She groaned, swirling around in her chair as her gun continued bursting a flurry of snow over her, her eyes staring up at the ceiling above her, spinning like a top, “Hey Snowball.”

From an adjacent desk, her small drone whirred to life, its digital eyes fading into view as a pre-recorded sound of a cat’s yawn sounded out from the small device’s charging port. Snowball sluggishly flew up into the air, dramatically shaking as though escaping its sleepiness- a function Mei had smiled incessantly about while programming it.

The drone flew over to her, though far enough away so as to not get snowed on as Mei spoke up, “Did we bring the Cerebral Projector with us?”

Snowball replied with an affirmative beeping, resulting in Mei nodding, “Good. I’d like to find, at least some, time to dedicate to it.”

Sadly, Snowball whirred in reply, hovering off toward another part of the small cabin of laboratory equipment. As Mei’s chair began to slow to a stop, she peered off into the distance, noticing a large just cloud off in the distance.

“Huh,” she muttered to herself, “Junkers on the move again.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A massive armada of cars, fitted into a large array of different design and shapes, sped across the desert sands, leaving behind them a gigantic cloud of dust. At the lead was the most massive of trucks; its wheels pounding into the dirt below as its driver, Oliver Jones, stared insanely out of its windshield, teeth clenched between open lips as he eyed the target of his ire.

The only vehicle in front of this massive wave of fuel-powered rubber-burning was a rather small car, though it had proven to be faster than any of the others, due to a small rocket-powered thruster beneath it. Oliver pounded at his truck’s dashboard, physically willing his vehicle to run somehow faster, though his eyes clenched as the sunroof of the small, green car in front of him opened up, the face of one Jamison Fawkes poking out, his face crooked in an evil smirk.

Oliver whipped his head outside the window and reached out a hand, giving the chased man a rather rude symbol, indeed, of his thoughts, though Fawkes simply giggled as he fell back into his car and into the passenger’s seat.

“Oi, mate; why’d you wait so long ta’ tell me you could drive like this?!” he shouted loudly at his driver- a massive being with an oxygen mask; more akin to a pig than a man.

Fawkes’ partner was Mako Rutlidge, or “Roadhog”, as he’d come to be known. In fact, in these parts, Fawkes himself had become known as simply “Junkrat”, the two forming a rather unlikely pairing, indeed. Junkrat looked over his shoulder before pulling out a small chunk of coal from his pocket, tossing it into the air repeatedly as he caught it.

“Y’know, I don’t know why they git all bent outta shape!” he wondered, sneakily, “I mean, you’d think they’d be used to it by now, huh?”

Roadhog shrugged as he leaned forward, his eyes catching the cliffs before them, hunting for an escape route. He reached up, pointing as a small ramp up one of the cliffs, catching Junkrat’s attention, who dropped the coal and leaned forward as well.

“A’right,” Junkrat nodded, “You git us up ‘n around; I’ll take care o’ our guests!”

Roadhog nodded, concealing a cough into his arm as he slammed on the gas, leaving it up to Junkrat to dive into the back seat. The wily man rolled around on the cushions, atop a particularly dangerous collection of explosive equipment, as he wondered aloud what all to take.

“Hmm… What t’ make, what t’ make...” he muttered to himself, eying a particularly piece before exclaiming, “Oh! Ah ha!”

He wiggled his arms through an eschew pile of grenades and mines, grasping at a stack of small disks, along with a series of smaller explosives. He hopped back into the front seat and quickly grabbed for a roll of duct tape, rushing to tape up each disk with the explosives, giggling to himself like a mischievous school boy.

“Ooh, they gonna find this to be an explosive day, huh?” Junkrat laughed to himself, shaking his head as he jumped up, pulling his feet onto the seat so that he could stand through the sunroof, his voice beginning to sing, “Do ya come from a land down under?”

Poking his body up, he spun around toward the sea of vehicles behind him whipping out his thin wheels of explosives, carefully activating his of the mines he’d strapped onto the disks, his voice still happily sing-song-y, “Where women glow and men plunder!”

Oliver’s eyes closed lightly, his sight sharply examining Junkrat’s movements. The wild man bounced as he giggled to himself, raising his hand and throwing the first wheel straight into the ground so that it went on rolling toward the encroaching fleet of vehicles. It missed Oliver’s truck, but the one behind him came in hot, just barely missing the disk, but the wind knocked it just enough off its axis that the wheel blew up, knocking that second car forward into the air.

Oliver spun around, seeing the wreckage causing more vehicles behind it to get knocked off course. He whipped his neck back around, angrily watching Junrat swaying back and forth against either side of the sunroof.

“Can’t you hear, can’t you hear tha’ thundah’!” he continued to sing, throwing another disk, now toward Oliver’s truck, “You bettah run, you bettah take covah!”

Desperately spinning his wheel around, it was too late, as Oliver’s truck ran over the wheel, the dirt flying off the ground knocking the disk over, blowing up underneath the truck and sending it flying into the air. Junkrat happily laughed it up as he simply tossed the remaining wheels along the dirt, quickly falling back into his seat, giving Roadhog a thumbs up.

“Hooley dooley!” he shouted loudly, leaning back in his seat and stretching, closing his eyes as the remaining wheels blew up in the distance, “Tchaikovsky couldn’t have written it better. Bring a tear to the ol’ eye.”

Roadhog silently went on his task, his eyes flashing down into the floor beneath Junkrat, eying the piece of coal there. He coughed again into his arm, causing Junkrat to reach over and pat him on the back, though it only caused Roadhog to flinch in surprise.

“Hey man, y’okay?” he asked, though Roadhog only shoved his arm away.

“Don’t. Touch.” Roadhog commanded, taking the wheel, again, with both hands.

Junkrat eyed him, annoyingly, “’ey man, I was just askin’. Y’know, we’re business partners, not strangers; you’re the muscle- I gotta make sure yer okay. I can’t have ya cark it in the middle of a scheme, you know.”

Roadhog’s eyes squinted behind his mask, painfully, as he tried to will away the stinging in his lungs. It wasn’t a condition that was foreign to him, though it had seemed to increase in severity as of late. He simply shrugged off Junkrat’s roads, focusing instead on the road ahead of them.

Junkrat groaned, staring out the window as he crossed his arms, “Well, at least we’ll be able to have power for a few days. Maybe give Daisy a good chocka tomorrow. Poor thing deserves it.”

Roadhog shrugged in indifferent agreement as their car sped off toward the small collection of mountains, looming larger and larger as they approached. The two of them had always had more of a strenuous relationship, based solely on a business arrangement, but when it came to Daisy, the two found something of a common ground, even if Roadhog was often too proud to admit it.

Even if they two had to go hungry, or thirsty, most often, they would always take care of Daisy.


	3. Chapter 3

The heat here is unbearable (ugh) especially for this Antarctic girl (Ugh) who spent the most part of her residency (UGh) doing all her projects in subzero weather (UGH).  
Send me your cold thoughts. Please. You can send them in parts; when I get them, igloo them back together.

\--Mei-Ling Zhou

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Fareeha curiously examined the, more or less, tin can of a building that had been erected, again, more or less, in the middle of nowhere out in the desert. Walking around to its side, it certainly had the Overwatch logo spray-painted onto it, but they couldn't have sent their scientist this far across the globe in such a measly little shack!

Pulling her backpack down her arm before simply grasping its handle with her hand, Fareeha made her way around the building until she found the door, only noticeable from the small key-pad that rested in the metallic wall beside it. Gingerly pressing a series of numbers, the door beeped, allowing her entry.

As the door opened, however, the freezing cold from within almost bit at her skin, forcing her to take a step back, "Whoa, there; what's going on in there?!"

Her eyes not adjusted to the dark interior, she only saw a mousy shadow pop out from somewhere within, before it ran over to the door, revealing itself to be Mei herself, happily snuggled up in her thick parka.

"Pharah!" she shouted, "Don't worry, I made sure it was comfortable enough for guests!"

Fareeha peered inside, almost afraid of the temperature, "Uh, are you sure? It does seem a bit like overkill…"

Mei snickered under her breath as her head poked out the door, past Fareeha, "This desert thinks it can tame me; make me one of its own. I say NO! NO to the endless wastes!"

Fareeha looked around, concerned, managing to rest a hand atop Mei's face, almost freezing her in place, pacified, "Well, if you are harboring a fever, I can't exactly tell, now…"

"I'm fine!" Mei assured.

"You sure?" Fareeha wondered aloud, "You don't have cabin fever or anything?"

"Just…come on," Mei muttered as she ducked back into the small building.

Fareeha stared worriedly into the freezing chamber; her eyes focusing on the little snowflakes that where flying out into the desert heat, only to melt in an instant. Her hand reached up to her arm, which was sleeveless, as her lips contorted into a sad expression.

In a second, her backpack began vibrating, and she hurriedly crouched down, whipping her phone out, seeing Angela's face in a not-too-flattering expression- surely not the sort of contact image the doctor would have preferred, but certainly one that Fareeha adored.

"H-Hey," Fareeha spoke into the phone.

Angela's voice cracked through the other end of the line, "What, are you nervous?"

"It's not nerves…" Fareeha assured, rubbing her arm with her free hand, "It's probably just shivers…"

"Ahh," Angela sounded aloud, almost amused, "Well that backpack holds your Raptora, but it also holds something I knew you'd need. Just hit the blue button, okay?"

Examining the backpack, Fareeha noticed the button, lined with a snowflake symbol, and pushed it, a rather thick coat popping out from inside the moderately-sized bag. Fareeha smirked, right after a sudden posture of disbelief, as she brought her phone back to her ear.

"I do love you, dear," she muttered, distractingly, as her eyes tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"I know," Angela replied, smugly, behind a giggle.

The doctor made a kissing sound, lovingly, before hanging up, allowing Fareeha to shove the phone into her pocket as she stood with the coat, which was, indeed, Angela's favorite when worn by her tanned lover, slipping it on and slipping into the shallow box of a laboratory.

Closing the door behind her, it was almost completely dark if not for the bluish light from so many monitors. Snowball emerged, flying over toward Fareeha's face as if examining her, the drone's face lighting up as it assured that this being was, in fact, Fareeha Amari.

"Winston wanted him to be a guard dog, I guess?" Mei grumbled as she typed rapidly onto a keyboard, "Not sure why; half of these Junkers couldn't operate a particle accelerator, much less a door."

Fareeha tried to speak up, but accidentally stepped onto a half-empty trash can, wobbling as she regained her balance, "Uhh. You know, actually, most of these guys could rig up incredibly complex devices."

Kneeling down to collect the few pieces of paper back into can, she went on, "Actually, some of them could probably surprise you."

Mei groaned under her breath, "I've looked out that window for more hours than I care to admit. It's mostly just them driving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth across the desert."

She shook her head diligently, "If we could just save this earth, though… Maybe… Hey!"

Fareeha jumped at her sudden outburst, collecting herself as Mei spoke up, bouncing up and down in her chair excitedly, "Angela knew to send you with a coat, huh? How are you two doing?"

"Oh, uh, good, I guess?" Fareeha answered, nervously, "Nothing, you know, weird or anything."

Mei giggled, rather devilishly at that, as she spun her chair toward Fareeha, "What, nothing exciting going on in Switzerland?"

Fareeha shrugged, "Well, I mean, we saw a movie at some point. She wanted to take me to visit Paris for once."

"Ooooh!" Mei cooed aloud, her eyes narrowing in suggestivity, "Fulfilling your little plan? Sharing love in every European nation?"

"E-Excuse me?" Fareeha questioned, legitimately confused.

Mei held a straight face for but a moment, breaking into a boisterous laughter as she leaned forward in her chair, "I'm so- sorry! I just- just- I just haven't had company in so long; it's been awhile since I've messed around. You know."

Fareeha reached up to scratch her neck, laughing nervously, "Y-Yeah, I got you… Ha ha."

"I get bored, so I often just think up stories about other people, mostly in Overwatch, though that's only natural, "Mei admitted, "You wanna know how I got 76 and Reyes together?"

"N-No!" Fareeha replied, now a tad annoyed, though Mei simply returned to her laughter.

"Okay, okay; enough of that," the scientist concluded, "So Winston sent you to help me gather samples, correct?"

Sighing, now that the conversation was finally normal, Fareeha answered more evenly, "Yes, that's correct."

Mei happily pulled over a small device from atop her desk, tinkering with it as she went on, "Okay, well this here is the thing that will collect our data. We need to find a suitable sample, however, which is why Snowball couldn't have gone out himself and gotten some dirt."

She snickered under her breath. "'Gotten some dirt'. I sound like a detective."

Fareeha grinned at her upbeat personality, shoving her cold hands into her jacket's pockets, "Okay, well I'm yours to do with for the time being. Just send me in the right direction and I'll be of aid. I even brought my Raptora, just in case things were to somehow get dicey with the local Junkers."

She groaned, "God forbid another assignment turns sour. I'm one mishap away from Angela sending a whole army in with me every mission."

"That would only hurt our cause," Mei groaned, "We need an unadulterated sample, so trampling feet kicking dirt up would ruin any chance we have of that."

She angrily sneered out the window, raising her voice, angrily, "JUST LIKE THE DUST STORMS FROM THEIR STUPID CARS!"

Fareeha took a slight step backward in surprise, but remained calm as Mei sighed, shaking her head, "Honestly, I'm trying to help these people, but they keep screwing everything up!"

"Has anybody tried talking to them?" Fareeha questioned, though was quickly met by Mei's unamused stare.

"I tried telling Winston, but everybody's too afraid," Mei groaned, "I don't blame them; it's like juggling a grenade with these people. Hopefully, with a successful project, these natives will cease being so, uh…"

"Uncivilized?" Fareeha answered for her, seeking a more polite form of the term she was sure Mei was mulling over in her head.

"Yeah," Mei concluded, "Something like that."

Jumping out of her chair, Mei walked on over toward the window, bending over the desk to peek up into the sky, "Well, the hottest part of the day should be over by now. Want to get this over with?"

Shivering, still, within her jacket, Fareeha hurriedly gave a nod.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei's feet skid carefully across the desert sand as she made her way, slowly, across the top of one of the small mounds of dirt that had formed after years of dune races, hoping that the sand atop which would most likely be suitable for research.

She stepped methodically; unsure of which rocks were native or not, she took no liberties and decided to avoid stepping on any of them, lest the surrounding dirt were to get contaminated by foreign earth. Still, she had taken precautions.

"Alright," Mei spoke, breathlessly, "DataBank, here, can carry eight different samples, so we should probably vary out the location just to improve our chances of finding a legitimate sample."

Behind her, Fareeha followed along, her backpack slung over her explosed shoulder, simply using a towel to wipe off any sweat that was headed for her eyes, "Okay, so what exactly is your goal here?"

"Well!" Mei began, her head ducking underneath her wide-rimmed straw hat that also had two metal poled sticking out of either side of the bowl, holding up a cheap-looking umbrella to, somewhat, cover her from the sun's rays.

"The biggest hindrance to life here is the radiation in the atmosphere, right? I mean, it's lessened to the point where you and I are unaffected, with proper medication, of course, but there's still plenty that keeps plant life from growing. So, if I can understand how the radiation affects the dirt here, I can cross-breed plants to, not only grow in the radiation, but also take in that same irradiated air, purify it, and exert clean air. Get enough plants, in a few years, good as new!"

"Of course," she mumbled afterwards, worriedly, "With such an instable chemical makeup, the soil I'm working with needs to be a consistent variable. I don't want to breed grass that can thrive in, say, this rock here, which could be from Madagascar- I need Australian dirt!"

She tossed the rock back onto the ground as she placed DataBank on the ground, the tiny drone extracting a small sample of dirt underneath itself before Mei picked it up once again, "And now onto the next site!"

Fareeha sighed, tiredly, though she diligently followed behind the scientist as the two roved on along the landscape. After another hour or so, Mei was content to return, all eight slots being filled, and the two began their moderate trek back toward the tin-can of a Watchpoint.

However, upon approaching, as Mei tinkered with her drone, she felt a sudden force at her shoulder, the hand of Fareeha grabbing ahold of her and pushing her to the ground as the soldier slipped downward herself, the two now hiding behind a rock. Mei annoyingly pushed her hand away, looking at in shock as she noticed Fareeha's face, serious as it was, peering over the sizeable rock in front of them.

Mei slowly arose, taking a peek for herself, seeing her little base off in the distance. There stood a group of Junkers, kicking at the walls of the building as if attempting to gain entry. Mei's teeth clenched and she seethed at the sight nearly jumping over her cover and running down, herself, to clear away the intruders.

"Why I outta…" she grumbled, angrily, though Fareeha held her shoulder again, steadily.

Fareeha clenched her shoulder seriously, slowly ducking down before speaking, "Okay. I count five of them. I say we wait it out until they leave; they can't get in there, can they?"

"I don't know," Mei shrugged, "How many explosives do Junkers normally have?"

Fareeha stared at her for a moment before clutching at her backpack, "You know, maybe we should get down there. You stay back and support; I'll have my rocket pack and-"

She paused, noticing Mei's somewhat concerned face slowly turn into a horrified look. Fareeha sighed, letting go of the pack as a sandaled foot stepped lightly onto her arm, preventing her from completing her movement. Turning her head, she saw a lone Junker, aiming a rifle at the two of them, though he was missing an arm entirely, concealed underneath his tattered shirt.

"'Ey, Olivah!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, before speaking quietly with a grin, "I got ya two guests."

Fareeha lowered her head, groaning to herself, "She's not gonna like this."


	4. Chapter 4

After being kidnapped, bound, and taken away, all Fareeha knew came through her ears, hearing the various grumblings of different Junkers as she was moved into one vehicle, driven a distance, switched to another, and now on along a few more miles. Separated from her backpack, which offered her only true means of escape, she also knew that, in her blindness, she very well could also be separated from Mei, which was a strong possibility. Instructed to be silent, she figured that Mei would have been the last person to adhere to such things- and besides, better for the Junkers to separate the two than allow a team to think up any means of escape.

Sitting in the bed of a truck, she felt the wrong end of an assault rifle tapping into her shoulder whenever the truck bounced over a rock or something, only infuriating her even more; she would have hated to die to somebody stupid enough to discharge a gun due to such a shock.

Ordered into silence, and partially stubbornly forcing herself into such a silence, Fareeha simply held her head down for the majority of the truck, raising it slightly, only as the two Junkers in the truckbed with her began to speak to one another.

"'ey, Charlie," the one beside her muttered, almost giggling, "t'ey never send much o' anythin' our way! T'ink Olivah will let 's mess around with th's one, eh?"

Fareeha felt the barrel, again, as the opposite Junker replied in an old, grumbly voice, "We only answer to th' master. Don't let yer young mind get the bettah of you; even now, she could easily break free 'n cripple ya."

The young one turned to her, frighteningly, as Fareeha grinned slightly, the older Junker laughing aloud, "See? Told ya."

As if feeling the need to assert his authority, the younger one shakenly jammed the gun into Fareeha's arm, his voice almost squeaking, "D-D-Don't try anythin' funny, ya hear?!"

Fareeha lifted her head, her voice finally breaking through, "No offense, but I feel safer with you holding the gun."

As though able to feel the old man grinning, Fareeha listened hopefully, though the older man only replied, "I got mah own gun, thank you. I'll keep it trained on 'im, I s'pose. Master Olivah has been very clear- any new lifeforms are t' be brought in alive. He wants ta know why yer on our turf 'n all that rukus."

Fareeha's head remained up, but in a split second, she spun it toward her nearest captor, jumping a bit as she screamed, "BOO!"

He instantly fell backward into the bed of the truck, scrambling for his gun as Fareeha began chuckling under her breath, grinning widely, interrupted only by the older voice, "If ya could see 'im, you wouldn't be teasin' 'im."

Taken aback, Fareeha quieted herself amidst the rumbling of the ground beneath the truck. The bouncing felt more industrial and rhythmic, almost as if they were driving over speed bumps or something similar. She began hearing voices around her, her head lowering as she figured they'd entered a Junker settlement of some sort, headed by this 'Oliver' guy. She closed her eyes under the blindfold, trying her best to hear for any telltale sounds, though it was thwarted by a loudspeaker blaring across the area.

"Welcome, Member of Overwatch," came a very monotonous voice, "Please prepare for the treatment we've come to expect of those who encroach upon our territ'ry."

"Ovuhwatch, eh?" came the old man again, beginning to chuckle to himself, "Olivah's gonna have a time runnin' you down. Ha ha!"

Fareeha twisted her lips, angrily, as the truck moved into a garage of some sort, evidenced by the sudden lack of heat and sunlight through the cloth bandana covering her face. As the truck came to a stop, she slowly spun her head around, trying to catch something within earshot, though in a sudden instant, a massive blast met her chest, knocking her clear off the truck, falling with a thud onto the ground, leaving her gasping for air.

"Yea! That's what y'u git!" shouted the younger Junker from above before he hopped off.

Fareeha rolled around, trying to find relief, but was hurriedly grasped by her two arms and lifted up, being dragged along, backwards. She tried her best to control her breathing, but found it difficult in this statement, and as the two captors threw her into a chair, it didn't help much.

Breathing deeply, one of the two hurriedly handcuffed her to the arm of the chair before the second one ripped the blindfold off of her, forcing Fareeha to quickly shut her eyes from even the lack of light in this place. As her head swung back and forth off her shoulders, her breathing began to subside and her eyes slowly opened, seeing the dirt beneath her feet.

"Overwatch," came a foreign, serious voice, "You guys must have some serious… Eh, what do they say, uh… 'Balls', right? You guys must have some serious balls coming back to this place. What, you got too bored with your pathetic squabbles over robots and all that shit?"

Fareeha struggled to lift her head, but as she saw the man who'd spoken, she could instantly tell that this was the man who'd been referred to as, both, 'Oliver' and 'Master'. She couldn't meet his eyes, but just by his dress and his manner of speech, she knew he was of some importance.

"N-No," Fareeha managed to speak, her body suddenly forced into a cough as she expelled some of the dirt that had gotten into her lungs, "We're trying to help you."

"Ha!" Oliver's body shook only a second before returning to his still posture, "Help us? That's rich. Gregory!"

At the sound of his name, a young, almost teenaged Junker can running over toward Oliver, nearly stumbling over his own feet as he ran, his legs were so abnormally shaped, "Y-Yes, Master!"

Fareeha recognized the voice, but before she could look up at him, Oliver had grabbed the teenager's neck and forcefully pushed him in Fareeha's direction, causing the boy to fall just in front of her.

"WHERE WAS HIS HELP?!" Oliver shouted, his voice echoing throughout the cavernous piece of rock they were under.

Fareeha's eyes met Gregory's, who'd begun to tremble under her sight, the teen hurrying backward before doing his best to return to his feet, an older man helping him up and holding him. Oliver took a few steps toward the rickety chair that Fareeha sat in, quickly reached behind her head and grabbing a tuft of her hair before ripping it down, forcing her face upward to face him.

"A little late, I think," he spoke in a cold voice that reminded Fareeha so easily of Gabriel's voice on that deadly night of hers, "So, I apologize if I don't seem too welcoming to your sort of ilk. I apologize if I'm not, uh, 'thrilled' to see our turn at help, what, after YEARS of waiting!"

He threw her head back down, his arms trembling with rage as he shook, almost unable to come up with speech in his fury, "You- You all, just… Tell me why some…machines are more important than that boy, there. Hm? Tell me why I have had to watch baby after baby, born, without an arm. without a leg."

His vibrating body coming to a stop, Oliver knelt down in front of Fareeha, grasping her knee with his hand, squeezing as hard as his teeth seethed, "Have you ever watched a baby die, because it had no lungs? because it had no heart? You just stand there; you feel terrible, but when you see it, so much, day in, day out, day in,

"DAY OUT!" he shouted, shaking Fareeha's knee violently before standing up, covering his mouth with his hand as he bit down on his palm, trying to hold back tears, making sure he didn't turn back toward his men.

Fareeha had no idea where to begin, though the obvious thing was a quiet, "I'm so-"

"SORRY?!" Oliver cried out, pitifully, "Sorry?! Sorries won't give me back my wife. my daughter, and son. Sorries won't give our homes back. Sorries won't just take away your people's absolute, total ignorance of this massive speck on the-"

"You know what?" Fareeha suddenly shot back, her own blood beginning to boil, "You know why nobody showed any sort of- It's because you brought this on yourselves; who the fuck told you to go in and blow up a nuclear reactor? No wonder this place is in shit shape!"

Oliver grinned as she went on, "Can we change the past? Of course not, but what we're trying to do is change your future, and how can we do that if, at every step, we find ourselves in danger of this shit?"

The man unceremoniously tilted his head, shrugging, "You have a lot more people than me to convince, woman. A lot of people here, myself included, won't take easily to empty promises."

Oliver turned, but quickly stopped, raising a finger as he slowly turned back toward Fareeha, laughing, "Oh, I get it. You heard of ol' Junkrat's treasure, eh? That's what you're up to!"

Amidst a few chuckles and laughs from around her, Fareeha insisted, "I don't even know who 'Junkrat' is."

Oliver continued laughing as he began to walk away, following another man over toward a work table. Fareeha only watched for a moment before helplessly lowering her head again, sighing lowly to herself. She knew that, without reports, support would be sent within two days, but that was still far too long in this environment, not counting the time finding her and, god forbid, Mei, wherever the hell she was.

Lost in the thoughts of Angela, Fareeha suddenly perked up as she heard a light laughter from the other side of the cavern, a Junker happily goading along another, "'ey, chap; it's a pretty littl' coat ya got there. Just in time fer summer, eh!"

The two began laughing, unaware of the angry stare of Fareeha watching them, almost predatorily, at the sight of them fooling around with that coat. One of them threw it around their shoulders, mockingly wearing it before simply tossing it away onto the dirt at their feet.

In a split second, Fareeha jumped up, catching one of her two captor's off-guard as he spun around, her fist instantly meeting him square in the face, almost sending him flying as she angrily yelled out, her opposite arm following along, still chained to the chair.

Just as quickly, however, the second guard had jumped her, along with some other Junkers who'd simply been lazing around, holding her back against a nearby wall. Oliver quickly took notice, but as if not taking her seriously, simply smiled as he walked in her direction, clapping his hands.

"They certainly make them feisty these days," he noted, coyly, "If only you had that fight when it was needed. Now it's simply an annoyance."

Fareeha's eyes angrily met his, though quickly flickered behind him, seeing some Junker tinkering with her backpack, quickly returning to Oliver so as to not tip him off, his voice as calm as ever, "You know, woman, I'd consider my conduct thus far to be rather accommodating, all things considered. Truly, and I say this as a rather moral man, you do not wish to get on my bad side."

"Well," he corrected with a smirk, "Any more on my bad side that you and your compadres already are."

Fareeha grimaced, quietly pursing her lips as she let lose with a very shrill whistle. Suddenly, the backpack atop the work station exploded, knocking the Junker to the ground as the Raptora suddenly appeared, more so in a cube though, quickly expanding, sequentially, into its various ligaments, tearing through the measly desk before finishing its reconstruction upon the ground.

Oliver had peered across his shoulder, amusedly, "Neat trick. but like my other opinions on you, you'll need a lot more than simple tricks to convince me of anything else."

Grinning, Fareeha shot back, "Don't worry; I know what you people understand."

In an even quicker moment, the various compartments of the Raptora shot open, revealing a massive arsenal of missiles, all honed in different directions of the cavern, leaving Fareeha to comment, "Let me go or I'll blown this fucking place up."

Staring at the dark-colored armor, Oliver sighed as if forfeiting a game of marbles, "Just as I was enjoying myself. Boys?"

Reluctantly, the few Junkers who'd held her to the wall slowly began to release themselves, leaving Fareeha to grab her shoulder as she rotated her arm, staring smugly at Oliver as she passed him, "Consider yourself lucky I'm not in charge. Where's Mei?"

"The other one?" Oliver replied, as if having no interest whatsoever, "I don't know. We traded her off with the Melbourne Junking Company; it's an arrangement we have, you see. All proceeds are divvied up, 30/70, highest going to the finder. I found it rather crass to divide two people in that way, however, so 50/50 it was."

Fareeha made it to her suit as Oliver happily opined, "Well, the other one was so short; I suppose we did make out proper, though with this development…"

"Don't worry," Fareeha spoke, sarcastically, "They won't have their share much longer either."


	5. Chapter 5

It was difficult for Mei to sit quietly as her eyes wandered back and forth along the length of the trailer she'd found herself in. She'd thought that she'd been silent simply because that's what prisoners did, but she soon realized, as she further examined her captors, that it wasn't her simply playing her own role, but the shock she was experiencing.

The trailer was rather lengthy, covered with the thin metal of some massive container you'd find on a harbor somewhere. It was the first thing Mei had seen, given that she'd been sat down facing the wall, but in a quick fit of righteous anger, she'd spun around despite her bound wrists, only to be met with the shock she'd noticed earlier.

Along with her, the trailer held a few women as well, in tattered rags, quietly hunched over where they sat, some of them with the stray-haired heads of babies just barely peeking out from beneath their arms. They'd looked at Mei with about the same sort of shock that she'd given them, though a large, older man had come to check on the captive, reassuring the women before leaving.

They'd since returned to tending to their infant children, the sight becoming rather difficult for Mei to disturb with protests. She simply lowered her head, shedding only a few tears at her predicament, the often shaky road beneath them occasionally sending the whole backend of the trailer flying.

A large bolt suddenly rang through the enclosed space, the sliding lock on the doorway at the other end, and that same old man reappeared, grasping onto a small metal plate. His white hair hadn't been cut in a long while, and it flowed in the breeze as he turned to lock the door back, pensively watching his hand against the handle before hobbling down toward Mei.

Her eyes had grown weary, but in the somber atmosphere she'd gradually become accustomed to, she pretty much welcomed any change in mood. The man pulled over a stool across from his prisoner, pawing at the plate before passing it to Mei.

"I know you can't do much, hands tied 'n all," he muttered quietly, as if the breaths escaping him were his last few, "But I can't do much about that. I can simply offer you some food. It's a long journey back home."

Mei accepted, though her mind still ran through the fact that she was, still, a prisoner, so she allowed her thanks to go unspoken, simply taking the plate as best she could and laying it in her lap, slowly picking at the food.

"I'm Archibald, by the way. Runner of this 'ere clan of Junkers. Not in this age, mind you, though it does seem to age us quite well," the old man muttered with a straight face, though with humorous air about him, "First off, you're probably wonderin'; no, we ain't going to kill you or anything. We heard you were Overwatch, so we'll probably sell you back for some much-needed rations or something."

He leaned back against the metal wall of the trailer, crossing his arms, "And they thought I was a fool for that pact with Oliver. This changes that."

Mei had only taken a single bite before muttering in reply, "Overwatch is a U.N. organization. They don't negotiate with terrorists."

Archibald smirked lightly, "I don't think they are the ones to be casting judgement. What with Blackwatch 'n all; all that stuff that got them suspended in the first place."

He eyed Mei curiously, "Still, I'm shocked you'd admit to holding little value so quickly. Were you hoping we'd have you work or have you killed?"

It was more due to Mei wanted to sound as cool as the field operatives sounded when making their reports, though in this situation, she realized she hadn't the skill of, say, Soldier: 76 when he'd be captured by the enemy. Still, she knew she held tremendous value to this man, though she decided to keep such things a secret for the time being. She ultimately didn't answer, and she'd stopped eating as well.

Archibald watched her downturned head with quiet interest, "How long have you been down here?"

"You won't get much of anything from me," Mei concluded aloud, pushing the plate along the floor away from her.

The old man nodded, "Ah, one of those. Well, perhaps we can trade- story for story, eh?"

He looked off toward one of the women, whistling as his hand waved her off, catching Mei's attention as well as the shrouded woman. She slowly reached up and grasped the edge of the blanket that nearly covered her entire body, her hand shaking in embarrassment as it rose into the air, revealing her malformed face.

Mei's eyes grew wide, though as the woman began to shake further amid a suddenly burst of tears, Archibald quickly waved his hand again, leaving her to cover herself once more, huddled back over her lap, still shaking with tearful resolution. Archibald turned back toward Mei, sadly, though the scientist's face remained upon the woman.

"Geraldine," Archibald explained, quietly, "We call them our Lost Women. The radiation did a number on everybody on this island continent, but for them, it was particularly brutal. Some of us are just not made of the same stuff as others, it seems."

Mei turned back toward Archibald, her face soft in sadness, as he spoke up again, "So. You've come here to save us, I presume?"

"Trying to, anyway," Mei quietly replied, "Though, I can't say how much help I can do for those of you already living. All I can do is try to ensure a brighter future; scientists of my study can't do much about brighter presents."

Archibald chuckled, though it led swiftly into him hunching over, reaching for his mouth as he coughed violently into his fist, remaining there until the spell passed, his breath coming and going, relieved, as he returned back toward the wall, "There's a lot of bitter people. Within out ranks, as well as others. If you ask me, or these women, we'd say we'd be more than happy to accommodate your plans. But our lives are near an end. We've seen such evils, it's all we really know. Our lives mean little to nothing. But to the little ones, those of us in their twenties and thirties- they'd be much more difficult to convince. They want their futures; they wouldn't easily let it slip by onto future generations."

"Regardless," he shrugged, "We're going along with our plans. One, to save open rebellion, and two, we still desperately require supplies."

Mei muttered, almost helplessly, "And if they don't play ball?"

Archibald grinned, "To be honest, I have only so much power. I would advise you to hope that they do; I could shudder, thinking of the consequences of that not being the case."

Mei quivered lightly, hoping that he hadn't noticed. She stared at the plate of food nearby, though she had quickly lost her appetite. Her eyes wandered over toward one of the women, a scrawny thing, sitting on the opposite side of her, rocking back and forth, cradling her child in her arms. She leaned over and grasped the plate, sliding it across the floor toward her, when suddenly, a massive boot blocked its path, Archibald staring down at Mei, shaking his head.

"These are our Lost Women," he spoke, quietly, almost in a whisper, "but it is not their lives which are lost."

Mei shuddered once again, her eyes wide in realization as the watched the woman not ten feet away from her. Taking the plate with her, she slowly crept back into her corner, pulling her legs into her chest and hiding her face, hugging at her legs. Archibald stared pitily at her, though as it became more and more evident that she was no longer to speak, he weakly rose to his feet, pushing up on his knee as he went.

"They're not much for conversation, but perhaps they'll warm up to you," Archibald muttered, sadly, "It's still a bit to Melbourne. I'll let you know when it's nearby."

Mei didn't reply. Lost in the darkness of her closed eyes, she came face to face with the horrors of the field. Horrors one seldom found within the confines of a laboratory.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Fareeha cursed under her breath in Arabic, shaking her head as she stomped through the desert sands, grumbling alongside her slurs. Every few feet she'd raise her hand, check her reception, shout out something about a non-existent mother, and trudge on for another few feet to repeat the same process.

This Raptora suit was unique, in that, while it was portable, it couldn't maintain so much fuel, though it could utilize solar power, as well as some type of geothermal energy, if she could find the right sort of rock, specifically igneous ones, though she quickly dismissed this as glorified metal detecting. This all meant that she was at the mercy of her feet for the time being, having expelled most of her energy to escape the Junkers.

She groaned once more, staring up at a nearby mesa, wondering whether or not it was hindering her ability to contact HQ. Her lips turned in thought, her direction turning toward the tall cliff as she once again checked the display around her wrist, still receiving no bars. Rolling her eyes, she cursed once more, this time in Greek, and patted the outside of her thigh, bringing the Raptora's diagnostics on the same display at her wrist.

She bent at the knee, before suddenly exploding in a sudden burst of energy, taking her high into the air. Not wanting to expel any more energy than necessary, she desperately aimed as best she could toward the top of the mesa, just barely meeting it with her feet as she began descending back toward the ground.

Nearly falling backward and off the cliff, a sudden, short burst of exhaust shot out behind her, forcing her body back up onto the tall stretch of earth, reclaiming her balance. She hurriedly checked her reception once again.

"Angela? Can you hear me?"

Her earpiece crackled as it linked up to different satellites, though, finally, the sweetest of voices came through, "Hello, dear. There's an Italian in the kitchen making your favorite dish, you know."

"Yeah, well there's about to be an Egyptian in the oven. Can you patch me in to Winston?"

Angela didn't reply, though her voice suddenly reappeared, unsurely, "I don't even know what that means."

"Just- Just patch me through, please," Fareeha shut her eyes, painfully, as more clicking came through her earpiece.

Angela's voice rang out, "Winston, you there?"

A garbled mess.

"Hang on, let me-"

"-OW'S AUSTRALIA?!"

Fareeha suddenly jumped in shock, falling back onto the ground as Winston's booming voice ran into her head before parading around within her skull, still playing as Angela's voice began soothing her in its place, "S-Sorry! I didn't mean to turn it up that much."

So loud was the voice that Fareeha's vision had even grown fuzzy, and she simply remained seated as she answered the question that had so damaged her hearing, "Uh, Australia's been better."

"Oh? Something happen?!" cried Winston, concerned.

Fareeha nervously froze for a moment, "Well, uh, some of the Junkers decided to play body snatcher, if that answers your question."

"They kidnapped you two?!" Angela shouted out, hurriedly growing silent, a muffled assortment of 'sorry's' being doled out, quietly, on her end, presumably to other restaurant goers.

"Well, I got out, but I don't know where Mei is. It seems as though she'd been taken by another group of Junkers, but I know nothing more than that."

No reply, though that was characteristic of Winston, pouring heavily over his thoughts. At one point, it led to Fareeha growing impatient, though she'd come to realize that his conclusions were often worth the wait, even if it meant allowing the enemy to approach even closer.

"Pharah," he spoke up, finally, "Can you see what you can do by yourself? The problem is that Adawe, most likely, doesn't want an army rolling in- that's what Overwatch is for, after all. To that end, we have nary the resources, though I'll do what I can. It may take a few days for that to happen though."

"Winston!" Angela whispered loudly, "I'll head down there and-"

"No," Winston retorted, "You're needed there, Mercy. Pharah can handle herself, can't you?"

Fareeha sighed, "I mean, yeah, but the tracking will be a pain in the ass."

"I'll get Lena on it," he replied, "We'll check out any satellite footage we have from the last few days, and if she needs to make a quick fly-by in the Splitstream for reconnaissance, I'll allow it."

He paused, led into by a soft grumble, meaning that his next thought was on the tip of his tongue, "You know… Our closest ally is 512; I wonder if they'd be interesting in beginning their first assignment early…"

"Wouldn't hurt," Angela surmised, "Pharah already understands the basics of evaluation; she could give 512 a rundown at the same time."

"You up for that?"

Fareeha shrugged to herself, "Couldn't hurt. You said she drags around a cannon, right?"

Winston chuckled, "Well, that's how Tracer found her, anyway."


	6. Chapter 6

Mei remained in her corner for who knows how long. She couldn't bear to look around anymore, lest she meet the eyes of one of the heart broken women that sat in the trailer. She couldn't figure out why they were back here, and more importantly to her, why she was back here with them, but as long as she seemed to understand this Archibald's plans, she didn't feel much in the way of panic.

Instead, she turned the other way, toward the back wall of the trailer. The thin, ridged sheet of metal looked worse for wear, and she'd even noticed a small slat where she could see out, probably due to some Junker tool impaling itself in the wall during some barbaric chase. Granted, all Mei could see was dirt and sand, but given what other options she had, the view seemed to be very relieving.

She curled up to herself, feeling a but chilled. Despite the heat outside, the inside of the trailer seemed air conditioned to some extent, or maybe the hull and enough cracks that the blowing wind was simply that breezy. She crossed her arms, leaning against the back wall, closing her eyes and remembering her boredom in that box of hers. She greatly preferred that glorified hovel to this. It was too much adventure for any scientist.

She suddenly jerked her eyes open with a start, feeling something touching her. She looked up to see one of the woman, now startled herself, though she quickly recovered, slowly lowering a blanket onto Mei, graciously.

"Oh, s-sorry," she stammered, "Th-Thank you."

The middle-aged woman didn't reply, simply trudging back to her spot. Mei watched her, carefully, not wanting to be noticed, seeing the woman fall back onto the floor, simply hanging her head forward, no longer curled up with her child. Mei's eyes slowly lowered to the blanket that now encased her, wholly moved by the act.

She allowed her eyes to close once more, thinking about the fun she and Fareeha had been having just a day or two ago- she couldn't recall. She quickly came to the realization that Fareeha hadn't, actually, been having the sort of "blast" she'd been having, and a weak grin slowly emerged on her face.

Suddenly, she heard the faintly loud noise of motor whirring behind them. Her eyes slowly opened, though she stopped listened. The churning increased, getting closer, and she slowly leaned forward, peering out of that slat of torn metal. A vicious looking vehicle drove furiously ahead of a dangerously massive cloud of dust that it had created, the sun hitting the windshield, concealing its movements vaguely through a veil of blinding light.

It appeared to be gaining on the trailer, though Mei couldn't ascertain whether they were friend or foe. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to see past the blinding reflection, a dark figure appearing to emerge from the top of the speeding craft. Suddenly, a bang as loud as a firecracker appeared beside Mei's head, just a few inches away, as a giant claw came tearing through the metal wall, extending four lengthy claws before suddenly flying back outward, the metal creaking mightily before suddenly tearing free from the rest of the trailer.

Mei's eyes opened wide as she crawled away, now that she was only a few feet away from falling onto solid ground at a hundred miles per hour. She heard the pounding of wheels in the dirt, when, like a pouncing lion, a man jumped into the back of the trailer, a demented grin stretching across his face as he took back his footing, standing tall as he examined the trailer.

"Well, I'll be a koala's uncle!" he exclaimed, happily, before bounding along to the front of the trailer, more or less frolicking gaily more than anything else, at least until he noticed one of the women, causing him to recoil.

"Eeh!" he cried out, horrified, "Well that ain't what I'm lookin' for! You ain't worth nothin'!"

He skittered along, creepily, before noticing another of the women and recoiling again, now in horror, "Crikey!"

The crazed-looking man hurried up to the door, whipping out a small ball from his pocket that he placed at the handle, hopping away before clicking a switch on a hand-held device he had, crouching in terror.

The explosion was near non-existent, as a small puff of smoke emerged at the door, which Mei might not have even noticed had she not been looking, though it seemed to have done the trick, as the man happily swung the door open, running into, apparently, the next cart.

Mei warily leaned forward, looking out the giant hole at the back, examining the vehicle behind them which expertly held at the same speed as the thing pulling the trailer. She could barely make out the driver, whose head tilted annoyingly, as if not wanting to be seen, though the sunlight still covered most of his features.

Lost in her examination, Mei suddenly jumped as a loud explosion broke the air, and she quickly whipped around to see many of the women having jolted up as well, one of them crying out in horror as her blanket flew away, caught in the draft exiting the trailer through the back. Mei dexterously rose to her feet and reached out both hands at the same time, hopping into the air to grab the blanket just as the door fire asunder, the invader from earlier giggling as he dashed on through, just happening to avoid trampling one of the women.

"Say gooday to tha tickin', boys!" he shouted excitingly, lost in his laughter and not noticing the body at the back of the trailer, Mei's eyes flying open.

"NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo-!"

In an instant, a force like a bag of bricks flew into Mei, and the man instantly opened his eyes in terror, all in slow motion as the two fell out if the trailer, straight into the dirt gap between the two vehicles.

In a split second, the rugged car flipped gears, the driver slamming on the gas, just barely closing the gap enough to catch the two falling bodies, for catching one meant catching the other.

Mei slammed into the hood of the car, though before she could collect herself, like a bar of soap, she instantly began sliding off the high-speed vehicle, her screams going unheard as she flew her arms around, trying to grapple onto anything, and just happening to grab onto the giddy man's leg, though hed been busy clutching onto the antenna himself to notice.

To avoid them both flying off, the car gradually came to a slower and slower stop, until the man could relax atop the hood, though Mei still clung onto his leg for dear life. He finally noticed this and began shaking her off, bringing Mei back to her senses, though as she did, she suddenly looked down at the force in her arms, finding a wooden pegged leg there."

"AH!" she shouted, tossing it away from herself and nearly throwing the man from the top of the car.

"'ey!" he shouted angrily, "What gives?! I'm on a fifteen clean getaway streak an' you just ruined it!"

He reeled his leg back toward him, huffing angrily, "What? Ain't never seen a Junker before?!"

Mei simply stared at him, partly in terror and partly in embarrassment, though he simply observed her, his eyelids closing slightly for a better look, "Hey, you ain't from 'round here. Yer much too pretty to have been trouncin' around these-

"N-N-N-No!" Mei shouted, coming to her senses, "I-I'm a scientist! From Overwatch! So your better watch out!"

He stared at her with a serious look, but for only a second, having suddenly burst out laughing, bending forward as he held his stomach, "Watch out?! For Overwatch?! Deary me; the poor thing's deluded!"

Mei stared back at him, angrily, though he went on, "Overwatch hasn't watched over these parts in decades! This whole land is just backwater; there's nothin' to offer nobody."

"N-No! You don't understand!" Mei pleaded aloud, "I'm a scientist; I'm supposed to save your island from the radiation!"

The man watched her suspiciously, forcing Mei to continue, "Yes, it may have taken a while, but I'm here to fix it! And if you'd EXCUSE ME, I can't get ANYWHERE with everybody KIDNAPPING me at EVERY turn!"

"Kidnap?!" the Junker exclaimed, incredulously, "Now hold up there, lass; you ran into me and jumped off! All I wanted was- speaking of…"

He pounded the hood of the car with a loud clang, and began emptying his pockets out along the width of the hood itself. There were some wads of cash, which meant little here, these days, some handfuls of oil ore, which wasn't all that valuable, but more valuable than the cash. His eyes dazzled, however, as he pulled out the last bit- a handful of golden stones, rather large, dumping them gently onto the car.

"Gold?" Mei muttered, angrily, "You frightened those women…nearly took my head off…for-"

She'd progressively huffed out her words, but immediately stopped as a shadow descended upon her face. She paused, worryingly, slowly turning her head up toward the massive body that had emerged from the car- a short of large man, wearing a gas mask that made him resemble a pig or something.

Mei shivered at the beast of a man as he rounded the car, staring at her through cold, thin globes of dark glass that jutted from the mask, his body squeezing between her and the car as he examined his partner's loot. He reached for some of the ore, grumbling to himself.

"I know, I know," the wily man groaned, "But most of what we get is crap anyway; remember when we looted fifteen boxes from that one convoy? Nothin'!"

He snickered, "But this time 'round…"

He pointed to the gold, catching his friend's attention as the hogged man reached over, rolling one of the golden rocks around in his head, nodding in approval. The scrawny man then leaned backward, peering toward Mei from behind the large man, grinning evilly.

"Plus, I think we got somethin' even more powerful than that!" he happily continued, "This girl 'ere says she's from Overwatch! Bet ya we could make a pretty penny sellin' her back to 'em!"

Mei groaned, "Really? I've gone my whole life without being traded or sold, and now, twice, in one day?!"

The man snickered again, "Ah! So ol' Archibald had the same idea! You'd better be thankful we came 'round to pilfer you from him, lass; the man's a real sick type. Probably woulda given you a few rounds in the 'hackey' before bothering to make it known to anyone of his real demands."

Mei's eyes widened, "H-Hackey?"

"Y'know, 'hackey sack', 'sack'; the man's a psycho, let me tell ya!" he replied, thinking for a moment before giving an especially high-pitched giggle, "Then again, all us Junkas are! Ha ha!"

He spun around and began collecting his loot back into his pockets, and in his horrified state, Mei just began to realize that the hog-man had been eyeing her, sidelong. She quivered again under his eyes, and as he turned toward her, she made a quiet noise, something like an "Eep!".

Suddenly, he whipped out a large, shapely blade, like a giant fishing lure, bringing it slowly up toward Mei as her hands reached up in horror, instinctively covering herself as best they could. The sharp instrument followed her hands, reaching over until it was just about at her wide eyes, a cold sweat coming over her.

Then he ripped his arm downward in a flurry, leaving Mei standing there, her eyes white with shock as the rope around her wrists fell down to her feet. The hog-man returned his weapon to his side before trudging back toward the driver's door, leaving Mei in a daze as her life flashed before her eyes.

"Well come on, now!" the tiny man shouted, "We'll treat ya better than those freaks, but you're still our prisoner, now!"

He giggled as he hopped into the passenger's side window, juggling some of the golden rocks in his hands, "There's no civilization on this island that'll take ya in without takin' somethin' outta ya! I fancy we're the only chance ya got, lass; you might as well tag along."

Mei peered off in every direction, knowing his words were probably true. She thought back on Fareeha, though she couldn't be sure of whatever predicament she was in, anyway. She sighed, lowering her head, as she made her way toward the back seat, opening the door to a waterfall of devices and oddly-shaped contraptions, falling out of the car and onto the ground.

"Oh, right," the man muttered, thoughtfully, "Just stick 'em over on the other side, there. Watch out for the red ones; I color-code the sensitive explosives."

Mei's eyes nearly popped out of her skull.


	7. Chapter 7

Mei stared out the window gloomly, her hands hugging her legs against her chest, her feet up on the seat, not wanting to touch any of the pieces of scrap in the floor board, some of which were quite dangerous, apparently. She'd eyed a single piece of cylindrical equipment with a quick swish of red paint down its length, and she immediately retreated against the door as far as she could.

The hog-man remained quiet, simply driving along the endlessly orange landscape, though his partner was happily humming to himself, tilting his head back and forth as he played with the golden bits in one hand. He'd been singing some rather odd songs, but the hog-man had grunted loudly, sending him into a humming tune.

"First we'll plunder,  
then we'll sell,  
then we recover,  
Fin'lly we'll bail!"

The wiry man suddenly clutched his hand into a fist over the rocks, spinning around in his seat, cross legged, leaning back and stretching his arms down the length of the dashboard as he watched Mei, admiringly, "So, Overwatch, eh? You travel a lot?"

Mei didn't answer, nor did she move, forcing a frown on the man's face, "Look, lassie, the better company ya are, the more likely we are to treat ya well!"

Trying to hide it, Mei eyed him as he turned toward the driver, leaning in, quietly, "That's what we're supposed to say, right?"

The driver turned, and even though he wore a mask, Mei could tell it was with an unenthused face. Still, the scrawny man shrugged unsurely, checking himself quickly as he turned back to Mei, who quickly returned to looking out the window.

"Y-Yeah!" he shouted, nervously, "And if ya don't, uh… If you don't…"

He grasped his chin as he thought to himself, and Mei couldn't help but stifle a grin. He obviously wasn't sure of what to say, probably because they mustn't have ever taken a "prisoner" before and he was simply saying what captors were supposed to, much like how Mei had muttered in the same way to Archibald earlier.

""That's it!" he shouted, "If ya don't keep quiet, I'll have Roadhog here take you up to the perch and hang you upside down until ya learn your lesson!"

Again, the driver turned to him, angrily this time, earning a rather frightened look from the crazy man, his ragged teeth showing in mistake as he leaned toward Mei, "Eh, you'll have to tell us your name, now. To even the score 'n all."

He leaned back, but still noticed Roadhog's angry stare, so he groaned, waving a hand in introduction, "The name's Jamison Fawkes, though I go by Junkrat out here."

He turned to Roadhog, apathetically, "Happy?"

The hog-man nodded as he returned his eyes to the road, giving Junkrat time to sigh, shaking his head regretfully, before Mei's soft voice broke the tense air, "I'm Mei."

"May do what?" Junkrat inquired, quickly becoming panicked, "If ya try to escape, I'll-!"

"NoNoNo!" Mei shouted back, hurriedly, "'Mei' is my name!"

"Oh!" Junkrat replied, "Why didn't ya just say so?! You had me at a fright, lassie!"

Mei flashed her eyes at him, "You're rather unnerved, though that's to be expected from your first experience with a captive."

Junkrat watched her steadily, leaning slowly over toward Roadhog, whispering lightly before returning, "You seem to think you know a lot."

"It's a bit easier when you've been taken by two people, one of whom is about as serious as a road show."

Roadhog immediately released a chuckle as Junkrat stares at him, annoyingly, "First off, lassie, we didn't kidnap nobody. You were the one who jumped inta me; I'd have thought you'd wanted to hitch a ride! All I know is that we can fetch a fifty nickle for ya. As soon as we get back, I'm puttin' out a call to see where ya can be priced."

"But…But, you don't get it!" Mei pleaded, trying to offer her case, but Junkrat spun back around in his seat, huffing angrily at her insult, though probably more due to Roadhog's reaction to it.

He waved an arm back to silence her, though as if that wasn't enough, he grabbed a pair of earphones, quickly pulling them over his ear as he sulked, a steadily light stream of rock music flowing from them as the volume increased. As if aware that his mask covered his mouth, Roadhog quietly spoke up, just enough to be heard over the rough gravel beneath the car.

"You'll be safer with us. I promise."

Mei's eyes watched the back of his head carefully, though she felt his words were solemn and trustworthy, "At least one of you seems kind."

She couldn't see his grin, but heard his quiet, muffled words, "I know what it's like to be a prisoner. I don't allow bound hands."

That statement seemed to answer more questions than he might have thought, Mei considered. Allowing such a thing without question, that Junkrat seemed much more oblivious that she previously thought. She couldn't help but smile at such obliviousness, and besides, if his words were true, she certainly would be safer within their company, even if she were a prisoner.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Junkrat watched Mei carefully as Roadhog bent low, grasping the handle of the garage door, and ripped it upward, revealing their secluded "base of operations", as Junkrat had put it earlier. He pointed forward, directing her to walk along, obviously uncomfortable with touching her, and she obliged, quite curious at all the contraptions that lined the floor in cluttered heaps.

Roadhog closed the door as they all entered, and began walking off I to another room, quietly, as Junkrat groaned, "A'right, listen up. Can I trust you ta-"

He turned to her, annoyed, "I'm ordering you ta stay put. No funny business. I'm gonna go check out 'n see what we can get for ya."

Mei watched him walk off toward another room, grasping at a old and torn phone book, and for a moment of pity, she thought she might actually feel sorry enough to aid in her own ransom. She figured she would leave him to his own devices, though in a second, she decided to help herself, as well, to his own devices, walking around and examining the various bits of equipment around her.

There was a crudely made dust blower, something that resembled an antenna, and some things she couldn't even figure out the use of. She picked one of these up, turning it around in her hands, peeling into one of the two metallic tubes that lined either side of the boxy device.

Suddenly, Junkrat reappeared, phone book half-opened in his hand as his finger kept his place, "Hey, y'know the numbuh fer- WHOA!"

He pounced toward her, yanking the contraption from her hand and quickly throwing it across the room, panting heavily as his heart raced, angrily turning to Mei, "You wanna tear this whole place down?!"

Mei had grown distressed herself, and she frantically waved her hands back in forth in front of herself, "N-No! I was just curious!"

"Well check in your curiosity at the door, lassie!" Junkrat shouted, "That was my Thingamajig; I used it once to tear down a wall of cement blocks, ya know."

Mei had calmed down, but now that she had his attention, she decided to ask, "You made all this stuff?"

"Pretty much," Junkrat answered, holding his fists on his hips, "I've been doin' it since I was a lad, I 'spose. The Green did a number on my memory, you see, so I can't even really remember much from before the Omnium went down."

"Green?" Mei questioned, passively, already with a good idea.

"Yeah, the radiation," Junkrat shrugged, "Nothing green exists here except it, so might as well. It affects everybody differently, ya know; did a number on Roadhog's respiratories."

He snickered, holding a hand to his face to hide his voice, "He likes to say it hurt more of my mind than just my memory, but he knows it's just a joke."

Mei grinned, insincerely, as he giggled some more. She figured more questions were better than him getting back on track with that phone book, so she pointed at a random piece of equipment, "What's that?"

Junkrat's eyed glowed as he jumped over toward it, "Oooh, that's my Dig-Digger! It does the digging of two men in a third of the time!"

"Why would you need to dig, though?" Mei asked, confused.

He shrugged, frowning, "I dunno. If we ever need it, though, we'll have it ready!"

Watching her, unsurely, he asked now, "Why are ya so interested..?"

"I think it's cool," she answered, "I build stuff myself."

Unconvinced, his eyes narrowed, "Heeey, you said you were a scientist… All they build are charts and junk."

Mei groaned, "I can build stuff on my own time, you know! See?"

She pulled out her Cerebral Projecter, though as soon as Junrat saw the shape of it, he cried out loudly, jumping behind a nearby desk, "HIT THE DECK, MATES!"

Mei waved her arms again, even more panicked this time, "N-N-N-N-N-!"

Roadhog emerged, annoyed, staring at Junkrat as the smaller man's nose poked out from behind cover, examining the room, slowly. He soon crept out from behind the desk, earning the seemingly vacant stare of his partner, though everyone knew it was probably one of annoyance.

Mei groaned, "This is a Cerebral Projector. It's supposed to protect your thoughts into our reality."

Junkrat eyed her, curiously, "Supposed ta?"

Her shoulders sagged, "Eh. Well, after years of work, I've seemed to have hit a snag of sorts. Not only does it seem to be inaccurate, I'd like it to project them from the device itself, not run it through a computer program or anything."

Junkrat crossed his arms, nodding, "Well ya aren't throwin' in the towel are ya? Just maybe…"

He grinned, probably more sinister than he'd intended, walking up to her and grabbing the ball out of her hand, much to Mei's dismay, her arms reaching up to recover it, "Hmm, let's see now… Y'know, this looks like some of that tech back at the Omnium. Not quite as pristine, but similar."

Shrugging, he tossed it back over to her as he turned to walk away, Mei's heart stopping as she desperately tried to catch it, which she did. She angrily stuffed it back into her pocket, gritting her teeth as she stared at Roadhog, whose large stomach bounced in weakly silent laughter. She turned back as Junkrat returned with a box, dropping it onto a bench in the middle of the room.

"Betcha can't find some of this back at Overwatch, lassie!" he exclaimed, excitedly, "Those Omniums were built by private business, ya know; they're always building stuff-"

Mei quickly scurried over, shoving her hands into the box, which brightened up Junkrat's face as he continued, "Building secret stuff, that is."

Gleamingly, Mei's face beamed in amazement, pulling out components that she'd never seen before- that she hadn't even fathomed existed before. They all looked so pristine, yet simple, but as soon as she truly examined the pieces, she'd find that they were inexplicably complex beneath the shells.

Her eyes shined as Junkrat crossed his arms, frowning, "You mentioned somethin' about protecting that toy of yours? I was one of the first Junkers out there after the blast; probably explains my brain melding 'n all, but whatever. Anyway, they were using something similar to that, it seemed like. I guess, though, robots don't have brains, but if you're building intelligent robots, you'd like a pretty way of knowing what they're thinking."

He shrugged further, "Robots and brains. Both electrical."

Mei nodded happily, cooing at each piece of equipment she rummaged through, "You have more?"

Nodding, he waved her to follow along, missing Roadhog, who'd already gone off again, the two going down one of the corridors. Mei's head was constantly moving, looking at all the primitive, yet complicated, light fixtures, electronic equipment; there was a radio, a working sink, according to Junkrat, and even a refrigerator, though it was always bare, as they had nothing needing to be chilled.

"It's tough to find stuff to build with," Junkrat explained, "But being loners, we aren't behooven ta anybody ready to take our achievements for themselves. Sort of a double-edged sword, I 'spose. Like the voice on that old cassette we found somewhere, though, I wouldn't have it any otha' way!"

They walked through the hallway, though, in a split second, Mei's voice exploded into a gasp as she stared through an open doorway, immediately bolting through it, much to Junkrat's surprise. He jumped in horror, quickly chasing after her as she ran pell-mell toward the small desk at the other end of the room.

"D-Don't!" he shouted, "You don't touch Daisy, ya hear!"

In his jumbled attempt at dashing likewise, he tripped on his own feet, sliding to a stop about halfway across the room, lifting his face to see Mei on her knees in front of the desk, staring majestically at Daisy, sitting atop the very same piece of furniture.

"W-Woah…" she spoke, quietly, her eyes not even blinking, though Junkrat hurried to his feet, closing the distance.

As she grabbed for Daisy, Junkrat immediately reached ahead of her, grabbing the clay pot and yanking it into the air, Mei's eyes following the plant desperately, not wanting it out of her sight as she shouted, "W-W-Wait!"

Junkrat shoved the potted plant behind his back, annoyed, "No! You can't have her! Do ya- Do ya even realize who the prisoner is here?!"

Mei had attempted grabbing at the plant, though in Junkrat's mad retrieval of the pot, she'd accidentally clasped onto his arm, a sudden blush reaching across his face as he hurriedly pulled away, hopping away as far as he could from her, "J-Just hold on, now! What do you want with Daisy?!"

Realizing her outburst, Mei hurried took herself aback, apologizing, "S-S-Sorry, I- I didn't mean to be so frantic, just…"

She sighed, collecting herself, "Okay, I'm here because we're wanting to solve the issue with the radiation here. Our best bet is to genetically engineer plants to consume the radiation and give off clean air, but no plant can survive here."

She pointed at him, "But- But that plant! It's alive!"

"Of course it's alive!" Junkrat shouted, haughtily, "I feed her twice a day!"

He brought the pot back around in front of him, Mei's eyes latching onto the plant, "But… I've never seen anything green before. At least, not without being tattered or rusted. Daisy's been the most beautiful thing I've ever seen for as long as I can remember…"

Mei's excited face turned sad, realizing just how much value this flower had to him. She twisted her foot on the ground, uncomfortably, lowering her head as she thought for a moment, a bit saddened my her own self, thinking of which way to get it from him, a few unsavory options crossing her mind. Junkrat stared at her, as if figuring out when he could return Daisy, and eventually, he walked back over to the desk, carefully laying the pot back down.

"Sorry," he muttered, "But you ain't takin' Daisy."

Mei sighed, shrugging, "I… I understand. Sorry, again."

He groaned, rubbing his face, "Ya know, you are the prisoner here. I expect ya to, I don't know… Shape up, alright?"

If she had been a prisoner, Mei thought that the last few hours had been rather good for such a status. At least, until a few moment ago. Success, once again, slipping through her fingers.


	8. Chapter 8

For one so lost in the life of a prisoner, Mei found it quite accommodating. She sat on a couch, albeit an incredibly worn one, legs crossed to hold the massive pot that her dinner had been cooked in, along with a large serving spoon, as the two had used all the remaining plates for target practice. Given Junkrat's apparent penchant for explosives, Mei couldn't exactly pin down what weapon had been used.

So deep was the pot that Mei had to nearly stick her head inside of it to figure out where her next spoonful would be coming from, and during one of these adventures into stainless steel, she had eventually come to notice that Junkrat was sitting in the room as well, just at the opposite end, and hiding behind a table, also eating, with his head hiding behind his own saucepan.

"Uh," Mei began, unsure, "Are you oka-"

"Pfft!" he interrupted, lifting himself up, "Of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?!"

He hurriedly took to his feet, grabbing his pot before running off into the hallway, leaving Mei there, alone. Confused, she stuck her pot on a nearby table and leaned over the stool where Junkrat had placed the box of Omnium parts, pulling out her Cerebral Projector, examining it carefully. Opening up the interior, she pulled it close to her face to see better, her eyes wincing carefully

"AH!" she shouted, accidentally tossing her project in the air as she leaned away from the body of Junkrat, who seemed to just materialize beside her.

He expertly caught the ball, giving it his own opinion as he stroked his chin, nodding to himself periodically. Mei recovered, wiping off her cold sweat, though she was still annoyed. The thought quickly passed as Junkrat suddenly snapped a finger, quickly whipping out a laptop.

"We don't have the best internet access, but we do have the latest operating system and such. Roadhog's the real tech whiz; I just tinker with junk. I guess he's the software guy, and I'm hardware dude."

He giggled to himself, whipping out an HDMI cord and connecting the Cerebral Projector into the laptop, much to Mei's amazement. He sat down on the couch, placing the laptop on the stool atop the box.

"Well, you got as far as you could," he noted, "Even allowing the program to install straight from the device itself."

Mei groaned, "I know, but I'd still like it to be totally independent."

She took the laptop as Junkrat relinquished control of it, still checking out the peripheral itself, his eyes nearly closed as he critiqued the thing.

"Okay," Mei spoke up, "Ready to test it?"

"NO!" Junkrat shouted, tossing the projector in the air, again, leading Mei to another heart-stopping catch, "I mean, n-n-no! Wh-wh-why deny yourself of that, uh, privilege?!"

He shook nervously as Mei watched him, worried, though she slowly returned to the laptop, shaking her head in confusion. Junkrat grumbled to himself, crossing his arms in refusal, looking away as best he could while still watching her from the corners of his eyes.

Still, Mei continued along, setting up the device before clutching it in her hand, the screen lighting up before revealing a mirror image of what appeared to be the very scene which Mei was watching. Intrigued, Junkrat leaned forward as the screen instantly became a blizzard, before changing into a desert, with a rather flimsy box of a building in the middle of nowhere.

"That's where I was working," Mei noted, the screen floating in through the door as she took a tour within her thoughts.

As she did, however, little oddities began to occur. The same blizzard seemed to be happening in the desert, and Mei suddenly cringed at the sight, Junkrat turning to her slowly in concern. She closed her eyes to focus her thoughts, but as she screen planned around the small room, a large cryo tank appeared, with a lifeless body inside.

Mei gasped, dropping the projector, but Junkrat expertly caught it, though he hurriedly sat it down before looking back up at Mei, who was gasping for breath, sweating. He quickly took to his feet to run off for a towel, handing it to Mei as she began to calm down her breathing.

"Thank you," she muttered, quietly, patting her forehead, "It, uh… I'd like it to be less 'personal'. Sometimes other thoughts can creep in, and you know, once you think of something, you can't exactly stop, right?"

Junkrat's lips pulled to the side, curiously, as Mei began to laugh, "Maybe it's best you didn't give it a try first."

"What even was that?" Junkrat asked, flabbergasted, "An old job or somethin'?"

She turned to him, huffing through critical eyes, "Don't make it sound like I'm some thief, too! In any case, in a manner of speaking, I suppose, yes, it was a former job. We got snowed in, deep, and had to resort to our, well, last resort, and we all hopped into the cryo chambers. I was the only one to survive when they finally got us out."

She'd become downtrodden, though Junkrat's eyes softened as well, "So you feel guilty, huh?"

"What?" she asked, surprised by his answer.

"I dunno. I guess I can understand you feeling that way," he shrugged, "I see plenty of people down here with so much less than I have, and even less to show for it. I have no leg and half a mind, but you see children around here with even less."

His lips curled, sadly, "I'm only doing what I need to survive, really. I'm a bastard thief; some would say I'm worth less than those kids, so why do I have eyes and ears and they don't?"

He shrugged again, staring off, blankly, "Of course I feel guilty."

Mei watched him carefully, before lowering her head in empathy. Why had she survived when they hadn't? It was a question that seldom arose, now, but she still greatly remembered the days afterward. It took her another few months to realize why Winston or Lena never left her side unless somebody else showed up to take their place.

Junkrat shrugged, turning back to the Cerebral Projector, "Probably wouldn't a found anythin' anyway. I only have a handful of memories, 'memba?"

Reinvigorated by his interest, Mei spoke up, "I mean, it can project anything you can see in your mind. I could imagine…I don't know, a giant ice cream cone in the desert and it'd show it."

She giggled to herself at the thought, though paused as Junkrat stared off, almost lost, "You don't know what ice cream i-"

"'Course I know!" he shouted, unsurely, quickly leaning back, "But, I mean, if ya needed to tell somebody who didn't know, you know…"

Mei shrugged happily, picking up the ball once more, "I'll just show you!"

Instantly, the screen showed a desert landscape, suddenly falling under a downpour of three scoops of ice cream, shaking the earth beneath as they slammed into the ground. Unconvinced, Junkrat's eyes clenched in suspicious as he watched a trail of hot fudge descended from the heavens.

"I dunno," he muttered, slowly, "What do you do with it?"

Mei's eyes flashed, and a giant gorilla appeared on the screen, scooping up a helping into a cone, before slurping up, happily, the chocolate ice cream. Still unimpressed, Junkrat simply shrugged.

"Looks boring to me," he sighed, "We found a box of cake mix at a store somewhere; now that's somethin' I want rainin' over my head!"

"Fine!" Mei shouted, annoyed, "Why don't you demonstrate, then?!"

She tossed him the globe and he nervously grappled it out the air, eyes wide in terror as he shot a stare at the screen. He knew what was sure to appear, though all that appeared was a blank screen. Mei stared, curiously, at the screen, trying to figure out what had happened.

"Huh," she wondered aloud.

Junkrat shrugged, "Momma always said I had a brain and a half, though that half was just for mischief. Maybe that's why?"

Mei clicked at the keyboard, curiously, though she managed to ask, "You still remember her?"

"Well, yeah, of course!" he shouted, "Even the green couldn't make me forget her! She was the greatest thing about growing up; I'm sure I remember that correctly."

Suddenly, the screen melded into a hazy scene, Mei's eyes catching a scene of a young Junkrat or, she supposed, "Jamison", with his mother. He didn't seem to catch it as he went on speaking, and Mei didn't bother pointing it out as she watched the screen carefully.

He had gotten to giggling at some point, shaking his head with delight, "But she always made sure I had a warm bed wherever we went. I had a little sleeping bag she'd always have around her shoulders; she never got rid of it. It had my favorite cartoon on it; I loved it!"

He laughed again, Mei's pretty much watching these memories playing out in front if her, her eyes dipped upward in shock at his openness. He went on regaling, though his tone progressively became dark as he went on.

"She'd sold everythin' to keep us fed, but not once did she even consider selling my sleeping bag. No matter how many alleyways we ended up in, it was always momma and me and my bag. Keeps me warm just thinkin' about it."

Mei sadly watched the screen, holding back a tear as she held back asking the question she knew would be a heartbreak, "W-What happened to her?"

He shrugged, "Dunno. She was just gone one day. Disappeared. Though, that happens often down here; taught me a good lesson; that's why Roadhog 'n I keep our relationship professional."

He snickered, "That, and he can't exactly leave when he's got fifty percent of my treasure!"

"Treasure?" Mei asked, curiously, "What treasure?"

Junkrat laughed heartily, "I told you, right? I was one of the first to dig through the Omnium. Found me a treasure there; offered Roadhog half of it if he'd be my body guard 'n all."

Mei's eyes slowly shifted toward the screen, oddly enough finding that Daisy had entered his mind. Finally, he turned back toward her and the screen, a massive gasp exiting his mouth as he darted for the laptop.

"WHAT THE-?!" he shouted, "D-D-Don't you have some prisoner things to be doing?! You just come up in here and force me into spilling all my beans! Trickery! I swear, lassie, you wouldn't get away with half of what you do if you weren't so damn-!"

He stopped himself, suddenly, frozen in place for a moment until he slowly gathered up his laptop, dropping the projector into the couch, "I'll find Overwatch in the phone book myself, thank you very much. In the other room!"

He stormed off, though Mei jumped to her feet, running after him, "Wait! You've already got me too invested; what was with that?!"

Junkrat tore his arm away as he stomped along, "Back off or I'll bite you!"

"That's what you found, wasn't it?" Mei shouted excitedly, "Dai-!"

Junkrat immediately dropped the laptop, spinning around and covering Mei's mouth with a panicked look on his face. He looked around, trying to locate Roadhog, it had to have been, before he bent down toward her face, angrily.

"If ya don't hush up about it, ya won't be gettin' nothin'!" he quietly muttered under his breath, his eyes flying to and fro, though in a second, he suddenly realized what he was doing and he immediately pulled away, his arms fluttering in the air as he waved them wildly.

"I'm not that dirty!" Mei shouted, feeling self-conscious now after days in the heat.

"S-S-Sorry!" Junkrat replied with his own shout.

Mei frowned at herself as she turned away, though the thought had re-entered her head, her voice breaking out once again, "Daisy was the treasure?"

Junkrat's eyes flew open wide, almost as if seeing a ghost, even though he had already known she knew. He visibly shook, hurrying to an open door, throwing himself against the threshold as his head spun quickly, looking for Roadhog.

"Just…Just SHHHH!" he spoke up, quietly, covering his lips with a finger, "D-Daisy's so beautiful; beautiful things are always worth lots of money, right? That's treasure enough!"

He groaned, looking back to Roadhog, "Look, the only thing keeping him around is the treasure. I don't know why; he just assumed it was money and- I didn't exactly lead him on, I just…y'know…didn't tell him."

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "It was nice having a pal for once, ya know."

Shaking his head, Junkrat angrily pounded a fist into his open hand, "And god know he ain't gonna learn it from you! Once I secretly accrue enough, I'll give it to him; I just need more time."

"I-I swear I won't say anything!" Mei cried out, quietly enough, "I don't even belong here, after all. Once I'm gone, I'll-"

The two of them suddenly realized that Mei truly did have no place here. Other than Junkrat mentioning selling her off to Overwatch in ransom, which he hadn't even begun to do, she was simply just hanging out here. She eyed Junkrat, who stared off, non-committal, almost nervously.

"I'm leaving at some point, right?"

"O-Of course!" Junkrat shouted, as though not believing it himself, "I just, ya know; you haven't exactly been rearing to go, either, lassie. If you're so ready to head on out, I'll call 'em up and get, what, ten million outta ya? Yeah, that sounds like a plan!"

He walked off again, but Mei didn't follow him this time. She was quite absorbed in the warmth on her face suddenly, quivering lightly. She knew what she thought she heard, and she knew what it would have meant, were it, indeed, true. Her mind raced as another cold sweat ran across her forehead, her hand bringing her towel back up, suddenly so aware of her appearance.

What was it he'd said about beauty?


	9. Chapter 9

Moonlight cast down upon the world, the first time Mei had seen the night in quite some time. She didn't know how much time had passed in Archibald's trailer, but she appreciated the subtle drop in temperature regardless. She didn't see Junkrat again after he'd run off, and after that, she'd pretty much just sat in the couch for a few hours until she noticed the notches in the garage door had stopping shining in light. Eventually, Roadhog brought her a pillow and a light blanket, not speaking, though seemed to have a friendly enough air about him.

So here was where Mei was, staring up into the orange rock above her, calculating in her head about how much force might be needed to knock a single bit of rock out of place and down onto her face. She had slept enough on the trailer, and still not sleepy, probably due to her mind working a mile a minute.

In the middle of her thoughts, her head slowly fell to the side, looking down the corridor where the door stood that led to Daisy and the rest of the base. He eyes adjusted enough to the darkness, she saw a lazily-moving Junkrat make his way into one of the rooms, disappearing out a view.

She grew curious, though restrained herself, returning her view to the rock above. Just about to return to calculating density or force, she heard a sudden POP, followed by a muffled "YEOWI-" by Junkrat. She quickly looked back down the corridor, seeing him waving the pain away from his hand as he crossed the hallway into Daisy's room. Her curiosity still growing, Mei threw the blanket off with her legs, hopping to her feet.

She leaned into the doorway, slowly, peering across the room to watch Junkrat slowly pouring a cup of water in Daisy's pot, lightly cooing as he did so, "Yeah, there ya go, sweetheart. Fresh and free of impurities! Just for you!"

He placed the cup down, staring off into space before snapping his fingers as if remembering something, slowly walking off toward another door. Mei slowly crept into the rom, tip-toeing her way in further, curiously. The door hed gone into wound further into the mountain, and she thought, surely, he'd be gone long enough.

She came to the desk, grasping at its edge with her hands, leaning over toward Daisy, which wasn't actually a daisy at all; it more resembled an orchid of some sort, its white petals flaring out elegantly around a purple tongued petal reaching out of its center.

"Maybe…" she whispered aloud, carefully.

If she could only get one of its petals, just maybe, it could survive until she made it back to her box. She could hide it, wait out until Fareeha found her. Or she could just take it and run, escape this place- surely Overwatch had fifteen hundred eyes on this place with two operatives having been captured.

She reached out, slowly, just an inch or two away from Daisy's elegant flowers, her hand nearly trembling as her finger reached out, making contact.

"'ey!" Junkrat spoke, suddenly, having appeared from the door he'd gone through.

Mei had heard his footsteps, so he simply watched her staring at Daisy, hands held behind her back. This particular room had a crack leading through the shallow rock, leading a trail of silvery moonlight, giving Junkrat a clear view of her. He must have put his flower in here for that reason, she thought.

"O-Oh!" Mei began, feigning surprise, "I couldn't sleep, so I just..."

"Ahhh," Junkrat mused, walking toward another desk and dropping off the box he'd brought back with him, "So you sought comfort in the sight of Daisy, eh? I can't blame ya; I sit in here a lot myself."

He began sorting out different bits of scrap onto the desk as he went on, "When I'm not out with Roadhog, or fetchin' somethin' we need, I like doing my work in here, especially when the moon is out. I dunno, it's just cozy in here."

Mei watched the petals mournfully, feeling terrible about her thoughts of desecrating such a thing. Junkrat had his back turned, apparently trusting her enough to do so, despite her insistence on it a mere few hours ago, further deepening the nausea within her.

"It's not a daisy, though," she muttered, sincerely, "Looks more like an orchid, I thought. My family used to raise them when I was a child, so I sort of kno-"

"It was momma's name," Junkrat interrupted, as if not realizing she'd gone on.

Mei's head slowly turned toward him, not having noticed that the clattering of junk of the desk had ceased. He didn't move, though his head was already low from his previous activity, so she couldn't truly tell what he may be feeling.

"S-Sorry," Mei muttered, quietly, though Junkrat simply shrugged.

"No, no," he replied, evenly, "It was a fair question, I mean."

Mei reached up, rubbing her arm as she looked away, "She really meant a lot to you."

Junkrat nodded, "Yeah. I've always been so erratic and a bit of a nutjob, even as a kid. None of the kids cared to be around me, but momma never did mind. Even dad didn't care for me much; when he said he was getting' rid a me, momma said she was goin' too. Grabbed my sleeping bag and walked out, holdin' my hand."

He gave a small whimper of a laugh, "Even now, the only reason I have Roadhog with me is some treasure that doesn't even exist. How pathetic is that?"

Mei didn't know how to reply, simply standing there, sadly listening as he turned around, leaning back against the desk, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "You seem more put togetha'. You have parents?"

She nodded, though she felt bad about recounting such stories, given his own tale, "Uh, yeah. Back home in China."

A drawn-out pause soon broke out, due to Mei's discomfort at continuing and Junkrat awaiting further elaboration. She played her fingers, trying to avoid her nerves, but Junkrat seemed to believe she was thinking. Finally, impatience won out.

"Well, c'mon now!" he shouted encouragingly, wearing a bright grin, "What was it like?"

"I…" Mei began, "I mean, I don't want to-"

"Pfft," he scoffed, waving a hand at her, "Oh please. I'd a been long gone if all that truly bothered me. It's the little things in like that keep me a tickin', not the past."

He shrugged, coercing Mei to continue, which she did, "Well, I mean, it was pretty normal, I suppose. Festivals and such."

"And orchid growin'!" Junkrat continued for her, which caused her an acknowledging nod.

"Yes, that too. I mean, we did a lot of visiting places and all that; my siblings and I were all pretty bright for that age, I suppose, but I was kind of odd- I'm very, incredibly introverted, so I was always the one staying in my room studying when guests showed up. Everybody thought there was something wrong with me."

She chuckled lightly, grinning, "Kinda like you, I suppose."

Junkrat blushed at the comparison, waving his hands back and forth, "D-Don't even compare! I'm a just a yobbo with more dirt in his ears than brains; I'm nothin' like you! Guys cant be beautiful anyway, ya know! And besi-"

He suddenly came to a halt, realizing what he had said from the look on Mei's face, which had turned a bright red, even in the silvery-blue moonlight. She immediately turned to the floor, hiding her face as best she could as Junkrat tried his hand at damage control.

"I-I-" he sputtered, weakly, "I didn't mean ta-"

"It's okay."

He looked at her, unsure of himself, though as he made out the slightest hint of a smile, he felt his heart race as she continued on, "Thank you."

Junkrat simply scratched the back of his neck, nervously, not dating to go on unguided. Though he had turned to look away, his eyes periodically flew back toward her, partly to check on her, but also to watch how beautiful she seemed in that moonlight. Against her raven hair, streaks of blue shone across her head, almost shimmering.

"S-Sorry," she admitted, weakly, "I d- I don't get, uh, complimented often. Always in my lab and all…"

Her face, by now, had melted into a look of sadness, her voice strong now, as if she'd prepared these words after speaking them in her own mind often enough, "I'm not as pretty as most girls. I'm awkward and weird, always in my own spaces, I talk to my robots, I don't socialize, and I'm so often caught up in my work, I don't have time to watch my body, so I ended up looking like this."

She'd poked at her sides weakly, frowning, though Junkrat was immediate on the up-take, "Well that's not true! You're incredible! I've never met anybody who'd know their way 'round a circuit board, or anything relating to Omnic tech. You talk plenty; in fact, you've argued with me more than I've ever done with Roadhog! I talk ta my explosives, and ta Daisy here!"

On a roll, seemingly enough, Junkrat simply went on with reckless abandon, "And as far as your looks, I get nervous just lookin' at ya. Every time I ended up touchin' ya, I freaked out just 'cause I don't need to be doin' anything to make you less so! I can barely keep my eyes off ya, no offense or anythin'; I know that's kind of creepy when it ain't an actor guy sayin' it or somethin'."

Mei grinned softly, "No. No, it was very sweet."

Junkrat went back to scratching his neck, his upturned eyes keeping to the ceiling in nervousness as Mei asked, "So that's why you haven't treated me as a prisoner?"

"That's why I haven't even made calls…" he muttered, looking away, "I mean, not to make it sound like I want ya here forever or anythin'…"

Mei giggled slightly, surprising even her, before regaining composure, "I mean, I'm dedicated to fixing up this place. Australia, I mean. It's not like I'll be going anywhere; just my tiny little labora-box that you saw earlier. You could come by any time; I'm sure I could always use somebody who knows their way around a combustion engine."

"No foolin'?" he asked, grinning boyishly.

Shrugging, Mei returned the smile, "I don't see why not."

Junkrat lowered his head, sighing deeply through his smile, which faded gradually as he finally stood up, walking toward the door, waving her along, "Hey, c'mon."

She did so, following him back into the front room where the box of Omnic junk still sat. He grabbed at his laptop, yanking out the power cable before handing it off to Mei, who watched it, confused.

"'ere ya go," he spoke, weakly, "You can use it to tell 'em where you are. Pick ya right up, I s'pose."

Mei didn't take it immediately, simply looking back at him, "Are you sure? You don't want that few billion dollars?"

"…billions?" he asked, inquisitively, though Mei quickly grinned mischievously, yanking the laptop from his hands, resulting in a laugh from him.

"I'm probably worth, like, ten bucks anyway," she smiled, unsurely, "Or, at the very least, my own weight in puns."

"Puns?" Junkrat questioned, curiously, "What, like a punchin' gun?"

Mei laughed, "No, no. It's like when a word means two things at once or something. Like, uh… Like sign language! It's pretty handy to know, huh?"

He stared off for a moment before nodding his head, "Eh, like "handy" 'cause you use your hands. I guess it's kinda funny."

Mei rolled her eyes, opening up the laptop with a sigh, "You'll pick it up soon enough, I suppose."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Th3RedPyro, over on FF, for explaining some of the finer points of Australian-English to me! Apparently, "sheila" would be used, rather than "lassie", when Junkrat uses it to refer to Mei, so I'll be going back an adjusting that as soon as I can ;D I enjoy doing research for stuff like this in my writing, so I greatly appreciate the heads up!

Roadhog was busily messing around with a motor on a nearby table, the mallet beside him getting quite a bit of use as he attempted to, Mei assumed, fix it. Sitting across the room from him, she'd watched him almost the entire time, curiously trying to figure out what it was he was doing. Finally, she stood up and simply walked over for a closer look, grasping the edges of the table and leaned forward to see past his large arms.

His face turned to her suddenly, as though he was surprised, but he quickly returned to doing whatever it was he was doing, silently, the only noise from him coming through his mask, his labored breathing sounding almost mechanical. Mei eyed his hands as he shoved them into different valves, working with different bolts, and just generally running around the motor's edges.

"Do you need some help, Mister, uh… Hog?"

He stopped, slowly turning to her, drolly, which she could even tell with his mask on, her body slowly pulling back subconsciously. His hand reached over across the desk, pointing at a picture frame that held a nametag within it, for a Mr. Mako Rutledge. Mei relaxed, nodding along.

"Ah, gotcha. You don't talk much; is it because of your lungs?"

Roadhog suddenly dropped the wrench in his hand, shaking his head, annoyed, looking deeper into the cavern to find Junkrat, though Mei quickly spoke up to help absolve the scrawnier of the two, "N-No, it's okay! He just mentioned the radiation screwed with your respiratory system or something."

The large man groaned, shaking his head as he grasped the motor with both hands, as if supporting him as he turned to Mei, his voice coming across angrily, "Did he mention it unscrewed a few of his screws?"

Mei nodded, unsurely, though it seemed to satisfy the man, who groaned again before picking up his wrench, returning to his work. Mei was left a bit more uncomfortable than she had been, but Roadhog suddenly began to cough, violently, turning away from her and bending over, instinctively covering his face as if his mask wasn't there.

"Are you okay?!" Mei asked, quickly, trying to help him, but he pushed her away, shaking his head.

He remained still for a few moments, breathing lightly, before once again grappling at his wrench, far more weakly than before. Mei quickly turned back to where she'd been sitting, eying the laptop before running over to fetch it, starting up a text-to-speech program before returning to Roadhog's desk, his head turning to watch her, curiously.

"Okay, I don't want you killing yourself trying to make conversation," she grinned, "So you'll just type it here and Sam with speak it for you, alright?"

Roadhog peered down at the laptop, almost as if critiquing it, before reaching over to grab at it, expertly typing with one hand as his other held it in space.

Sam: "That dolt never mentioned this."

Roadhog's head dipped into a slow shake, a sigh escaping his mask as he laid the laptop down, carefully. Mei grinned nervously, though carefully hid it as Roadhog went on working. She leaned back over, watching him, pointing out different things that he hadn't been aware of.

"Yeah, this is a foreign make," Mei noted, "I'm not one for cars, but I can certainly tell that this isn't German; it might be Japanese, maybe. See this ridge here? Most German models don't have that."

Roadhog nodded, shrugging as he reached for the laptop,

Sam: "I can't fix it then."

He shook his head, seeming to have rolled his eyes as his head fell backward, slightly, before Mei could speak, carefully grabbing for the laptop, "Let's see; if I can find the right- AH!"

She jumped up, excitedly, "Fareeha's made it out! Let's see… Says she'll be here, 13:00; awesome!"

Mei playfully hit Roadhog on the arm, his face turning to stare at his bicep as if such an action were foreign to him, though Mei simply went on, "Okay, okay; here, I'll make sure you get this working, then. If I can just find a decent site…"

Her fingers clicked and clacked quickly across the keyboard as Roadhog simply stood there, vacantly, awaiting her completion. He only watched the motor beneath him, but as a clanging came from around the corner, he slowly peered off toward it, seeing Junkrat there, a steel pot on top of his head, like a helmet.

"WOW-EE!" he shouted, wiping off the oil stains from his face, "That car's seen bettah days! Tell ya what, Roadie, I betcha next time we go out, we can find a brand spankin' new radiatior for tha girl!"

Hurriedly, Roadhog grabbed at the laptop, shocking Mei in the process, and began typing quickly, looking at Junkrat as Sam's voice droned aloud,

Sam: "If we weren't so busy finding one of only fifteen bags of plant food on this damned continent, the car wouldn't be shooting oil out of itself, among five other things."

Roadhog turned to nod at Mei, as if appreciating that she'd given him a voice, though she only stood there, slightly horrified, having potentially disrupted the dynamic of the duo. Sure enough, Junkrat watched his partner, greatly confused, pulling the pot from his head and tossing it onto a nearby table.

"Wh- I thought you were down, man!" Junkrat answered, shrugging, "If you had spoken up, we'd 've-"

Already typing hastily, Roadhog stared back of Junkrat, Sam's voice cutting him off,

Sam: "Talking with this throat is like stabbing my neck with a knife."

Junkrat sighed, looking away, "Alright, alright. But we can't just leave Daisy out hanging on a Rutledge."

He leaned over, eying Mei, who only hide her face in her hands as his "pun" washed over her, ickily. Despite his attempt at humor, Roadhog didn't find it funny, and he simply shook his head, sitting the laptop down as he turned to his motor and went on working, exiting the conversation.

Groaning heavily, Junkrat grabbed his pot again and walked off back into the other room, leaving the two alone again. Mei watched the empty doorway for a bit, turning to Roadhog, confused, before asking.

"Is it usually this tense?" she questioned, quietly.

Roadhog nodded, reaching over to type on the laptop,

Sam: "We're not friends. We're business partners. That's all."

Mei's face sank as she heard that, Roadhog returning to his work. Junkrat had said much the same, though he seemed to value Roadhog's presence far more than the other way around, a fact which saddened her further.

Roadhog, again, reached across the top of the desk, typing once again,

Sam: "As long as that treasure is hidden, he has me bound to him. No surprise, of course; he couldn't make it here, alive, without me. I'm more or less a prisoner here. I don't like that."

Suddenly, a loud *crash* left the next room, and Mei heard Junkrat curse in some obscure Australian expletive before he showed up again, sticking his head out from the door, angrily, "A'right! If I'm such a hindrance, why don't you just leave! Take the car with ya and go!"

Roadhog looked down at the motor before shrugging, turning to Junkrat with a nonchalance, speaking weakly through his mask, "Fine. Where's my half?"

A sudden terror came across Junkrat's face, knowing he'd screwed up in his anger. Roadhog easily noticed his expression, but remained still, seemingly happy enough to watch the man sputter out over the ocean somewhere, desperately seeking out an excuse. Roadhog had known, for quite some time, that there was no treasure, or if there truly had been, it was no longer of either of their possession.

Junkrat couldn't speak as he angrily stood there, simply seething, unable to find anything to say. Finally, Roadhog simply turned, leaving the desk and walking up to and around Junkrat, into the adjacent room. Slowly, Junkrat's head fell forward, the sound of an engine revving up suddenly echoing through the cavernous base of operations before, gradually, trailing off into silence.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Mei had returned to the couch, which had been, probably, the only true safe haven she had had here, where she could feel comfortably or, at least, out of the way. That didn't really apply now, seeing as how there was only one person left here, but feeling somewhat responsible for Mako's dismissal, she still figured it'd be best to remain as 'on the wall' as possible, just counting the minutes until Fareeha's arrival.

Junkrat had quietly gone from room to room, silently carrying armfuls of equipment here and there, almost as if she wasn't there, though, on occasion, his eyes did meander over toward her, though only quickly, as if to make sure she wasn't dead or anything.

Finally, the boredom beginning to squeeze against either side of her mind, she took to her feet, walking over to the desk where Roadhog's motor still sat, pulling over the laptop and searching up blueprints online, slowly managing to figure out what was wrong.

As she worked, Junkrat showed more and more interest each time he passed by, eventually stopping a few feet away and just watching her unscrewing bolts and pulling apart componants. She tugged at one part, nearly taking the entire motor with her, unable to tug it loose. Quickly, Junkrat rushed up to her, taking it from her.

"'Ey, no need to hurt yerself," he muttered, easily pushing against the inner mechanism while yanking off the outer shielding, sitting in on the desk, "Why are ya messin' with this, anyway?"

She shrugged, wiping some oil off her hand, "I promised him I'd do it before I left."

Junkrat shook his head dismissively, "What, you think he's seriously comin' back?"

"Why not?" she spoke up, "He obviously knew for a long enough time that you had no treasure, judging by his indifference to you not spilling the beans. He still stayed around, though."

Grimacing, Junkrat scoffed, shaking his head as he headed off again, "Whateva' ya say. I have a feelin' we won't be seein' him around any time soon."

Mei watched him, sadly, as he walked away, but she was still determined, returning to her project with careful precision, following along with the diagrams on the laptop's screen, fixing the issue before beginning to put it back together again, methodically.

By the time she'd finished, it was 12:34 and nearing Fareeha's arrival time, so she headed over toward the small nook that served as a tiny sort of kitchen, washing off her arms as she stared toward the garage door that led out- where she'd said to knock.

She'd missed Fareeha, but she knew she'd miss Junkrat, oddly enough. She had never had any friends at Overwatch who were so intrigued by putting stuff together; on the contrary, many of them were more devoted to blowing stuff up. At that, she realized that Junkrat was no different- he was quite amazed by the idea of destruction. But, in his mind, destruction was only a means to further creation.

Most of the mechanisms she'd stumbled upon were built from previously existing machines- even the explosives in the car she'd noticed first thing. He'd had a knack for recycling scrap and using it to build car parts, or lighting, or perhaps even the laptop itself. He built, destroyed, and built again; what was he aiming for?

Then she thought of Australia itself- built, destroyed, and here she was, trying to do the very same thing. Maybe that's what Jamison Fawkes was doing; building to create brighter futures, brighter projects, and when they failed, he simply started all over again.

Mei stared off into the other room as she wiped her hands off on her pants, her eyes suddenly widening as her neck whipped downward- her Cerebral Projecter was nowhere to be-

"Lookin' for this?" Junkrat muttered, quietly, leaning against the wall just outside the kitchen.

She gave a sigh of relief, walking over to him, "Thank goodness; I thought I was…"

Amazed, her speech slowed to a stop, eyes widened. Although Junkrat didn't move, the ball in his hand, almost magically in Mei's eyes, projected a beam of light at the wall beside him- a grey haze filling the square projection that lined the wall. Her mouth dropped in shock.

"I figured it was the least I could do for keepin' ya here," he spoke, weakly, "So I managed to get it workin' as you wanted. Looks pretty nice, if I say so myself."

Despite his words, his expression was downcast, clearly saddened that she was leaving. Mei only smiled as she took her projecter, flipping its 'Off' switch before leaning over quickly, wrapping her arms around a suddenly shocked Junkrat.

"H-HEY!" he shouted, pushing at her arms, "YOU D-DON'T HAVE TA!"

"I know, but I want to," Mei spoke up, happily, "Thank you."

Junkrat still watched in surprise, but he slowly grew a smile, heartily, reaching a single hand around her back to pat her, "A'right, a'right."

"And you're more than welcome to come visit, as I said," Mei went on, happily, "If you want, I'll throw in a good word for you at Overwatch HQ; see if they'd be interested in taking in a yobbo!"

"Eh, I think I'm good," Junkrat shrugged, "This is the only place that'd have me. Even if it'll be a bit quiet, now, without yobboth runnin' around."

Mei's face twisted happily, charging up a laugh, which she released, falling away from her hug to bend over, grasping her stomach as she laughed and laughed. Junkrat simply crossed his arms, smirking, proud of himself as he watched her crack up, wiping away tears as she recovered.

She turned to irrhythmic bursts of giggles now, shaking her head in disbelief, "My- My goodness, that was brilliant!"

Junkrat only nodded, "I thought so."

Lost in this moment, the two nearly jumped in surprise as a quiet banging came at the garage door. Mei happily went through her pockets, nodding to herself as she mouthed each object she found, everything in its place. She looked up at Junkrat, who stepped back, allowing her to walk around toward the door, following along behind her.

"Oh," she stopped, "Thank you again for fixing this up. I'll be sure to give you a shout-out on my blog when I mention it."

Junkrat stared at her, confused, "A'right, but some day you'll have to show me how to scream into so many other computers."

Mei grinned as she turned, but she noticed his arm had been hidden behind him, mysteriously, forcing her to pause as another knock came against the metal door. Junkrat seemed to grow sad as she noticed, his face sinking low, almost unsure of himself.

Slowly, he brought his arm around, his fingers clutched around the pot where Daisy sat, proudly rising up toward the ceiling. Mei's eyes dazzled for but a brief moment, quickly turning to shock as she realized what he was doing.

"B-But! But she's so-"

"Eh," Junkrat shrugged with a grin, "I've seen somethin' more beautiful than her, now. I'll be fine."

Mei's face immediately blew up into fever-red hues, nervously turning downward to hide her expression as Junkrat further reached out the plant for her to take, "C'mon, now. Your gonna make this place pretty again, right?"

Another knock.

"I'll be happy ta see it," Junkrat went on, somberly, "Then I'll say to everyone, "That's because of that one sheila"."

Mei grinned, "So it'll be worth a few billion dollars?"

"Oh, it'll be priceless!" Junkrat exclaimed, happily, "I figured you'd be worth the same, but I doubt Overwatch would'a taken me seriously, so…"

He nervously scratched his neck as Mei smirked once again, reaching over for another quick hug. Finally, Junkrat made his way to the door, bending down to unlock its handle as he stared back up toward Mei.

"You're always welcome here too, ya know."

"Of course," Mei smiled, clutching Daisy tightly against her body.

Junkrat grinned, yanking the door up and the two were suddenly confronted with the brightest sunlight they'd ever seen, hurrying to shield their eyes. Mei's hand looked pitch black as the sunlight shone around it, but as she began to lower it for a better picture, she suddenly found Junkrat flying down to the ground, grasping at his stomach, painfully, a cry escaping him just before a foot managed to kick him in the face to shut him up.

"Junkrat!" Mei shouted aloud in horror, though she was soon confronted, herself, with a dark silhouette, reaching over to grab at her shoulder.

She quickly pushed the arm away, shielding Daisy with her other arm. As she turned to run, the same figure easily caught her, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her into the arm, her legs flailing for dear life.

"J-JUNKRAT!" she shouted, loudly, as the body spun around, her eyes watching two goons taking turns at pummeling the nearly life-less body on the ground, an unfamiliar face appearing in the sunlight at the door.

"My, my…" the man spoke up, evilly, "A rat in its hole. C'mon. I want them both; Archibald will want one of 'em. Take the plant too; she'll need it if she's so desparate to cling to it."

"NO!" Mei shouted, trying to kick her way out.

Impatiently, the good holding onto her reached down to share a grasp with the pot, while another goon made his way over, winding up and punching Mei in the chin, her body sliding silently to the floor as her captor slowly released his grip. The man at the door shook his head.

"Well, we keep losin' 'em, but getting two back," he shrugged, "I guess this rat would be worth more than that other chick; at least I have the satisfaction of revenge with this one."

He snapped a finger, signaling the goons to go to work, smashing up what they could, the leader of the bunch only standing there, barking orders, "Let the other one know. When he gets back, he'll know not to fuck with Oliver Jones."


	11. Chapter 11

As soon as Fareeha turned the corner, her heart sank. It had just been as high as that peak of Gibraltar, but now it had come plummeting down to earth, her eyes widening, suddenly, at the scene before her. Up at the top of the rising slope, the brown garage door, which she'd been instructed to knock upon, was crumpled, though still on its hinges. It seemed as if it had been halfway open, then a flurry of kicks dinted it into a near-unrecognizable form.

Her mouth sagged as she started up the earthen ramp, catching more and more of the interior as she went along. Noticing more and more that the door wasn't the only thing damaged, her speed increased into a light jog up the slope, speeding up even further as she noticed a laptop in pieces.

Mei had explained its use; she'd definitely been here. As she entered the small cavern, Fareeha carefully surveyed her surroundings, trying to minimize her panic. If she'd been killed, she would have been here still- no, she was alive. Kidnapped. But why?

Fareeha stepped carefully into another room, peeking around the corner, almost as if expecting a body rather than a living person. Nothing. She sighed with relief, trying the next dug-out addition to this place. Maybe somebody knew what she was doing? She let them know all about this Junkrat fellow, and another guy, Roadhog, as well as their mischievous ways- perhaps they'd gotten on somebody's bad side and Mei was swept away?

Still, Fareeha's teeth clenched behind her lips. The whole place was empty, as least of humans. All over, scrap metal was strewn all over the place, as if it had been ransacked. She closed her eyes, steadying her heart rate, before reaching up to her ear.

"…Mercy?"

Some static, but her soft voice came through, "Your voice isn't convincing me that she was there."

"No," Fareeha sighed, "No, she's gone. Along with her two 'captors-turned-pals'. If they'd taken her somewhere, their place wouldn't be absolutely trashed."

Silence came from Angela's end of the line, her voice finally escaping, weakly, "Any leads?"

Fareeha groaned, hiding her face in her hand, knowing what her answer meant, "No."

She might as well be lost in the middle of the ocean, only this time, she probably wouldn't have the luck of reaching out to Overwatch from her captivity. Mei was lost to the desert sands, with zero to no hope of finding her, save for spending months going from Junker base to Junker base, and even then there was little chance.

"Sweetheart?" Angela's voice came through, gently.

Fareeha lowered her head, seeking resolve, "I'll start looking again. Hopefully I can find a clue here, but I can't spend too much time on it if I'm ever going to find her. Maybe her captors are still on the road."

She eyed a desk underneath a slit segment of rock, the sunlight pouring into the small room, little specks of dust and dirt floating in its rays. As Fareeha suddenly turned around, the particles blew away into nothingness, her feet weakly taking her back to the door.

"I'll find her."

Angela couldn't say much, but with Fareeha's comm system still on, she remained in her ear. Stepping out of the room, Fareeha sauntered out, her eyes glued to the floor as she hunted for clues. Suddenly, a shadow entered the edge of her vision, her body jumping back in recoil, her hand hurrying for her weapon. A large man stood where the garage door should have been, his body as still as if it were a mannequin.

She hadn't removed her rocket launcher from its holster, though her hand slowly left its shell as she eyed the man, perceiving him not as a threat, her voice low, "Friend or foe?"

He didn't reply, his head lowered as he watched the area, blankly, as if shaken by the destruction. He wasn't blank because he had no emotion, though; Fareeha slowly realized that his face was blank because there was a mask there.

"…Roadhog?"

The man remained still, though as if speaking his name calmed her, Fareeha eased herself, sighing quietly under her breath, "Man, you almost had me at a fright."

Roadhog's ears perked as he heard her, his eyes glancing over toward her as she walked back into the main room, "I'm looking for Mei. Do you know who took them?"

The man began to move, slowly, toward the couch, leaning over a nearby stool. He pulled out a small contraption that had been nearly dismantled. Fareeha peered over, noticing the motor in his hands, curiously, as he surveyed it, quietly.

It'd been fixed, he knew, before somebody had come and torn it apart. Mei had kept her promise, at least, she had, before these horrible people had come around and taken her. He remained there, evenly, despite the emotions building within him.

"Okay," Fareeha muttered, "I'll try and find them. I need to get out while the convoy should still be moving. If I can limit my search area to the first-"

"South," Roadhog answered quietly, "Melbourne is south from here."

Fareeha watched him skeptically, though if she were to follow his instruction, she'd have about as much chance, regardless, as any other plan, at the very least. She nodded to herself, making her way out from the small cavern, turning back to him as she exited.

"Thanks," she spoke up, "You know, Mei mentioned you a lot. She admires things that are big but gentle. She had a thing about dogs when she was a kid, I guess. I'll make sure she gets back safe."

She turned before pausing once more, "Oh, and you had a friend, right? I'll keep an eye out for him; hopefully he can look out for himself better than she can."

Finally, she took the last few remaining steps, kneeling down as she prepared to take off, quickly examining what energy she had left in her thrusters as a voice rang out in her ear, "Go get 'em, tiger."

Fareeha shut her eyes, before disappearing in an explosive haze, her thrusters petering out with a roar. Roadhog didn't bother turning to watch, simply dropping the motor he'd actually come back for, not expecting it to have been completed. His eyes rose, suddenly, toward a back room, worriedly.

He quickly walked back into the depths of the cavern, grasping at the door's threshold to turn the corner, his eyes suddenly going wide. Daisy was gone. Suddenly, his head whipped back toward the open garage door before he began to make his way out again, stopping to grab a box, hidden behind one of the cabinets. As he left, he rummaged through the container, every bit of scrap inside having been painted with red streaks over them.

He knew she was going to need help.


	12. Chapter 12

Mei's eyes narrowly stared at the metal floor beneath her, absently, her mind off in another place at some other time. The only thing keeping her bound to this place was the stinging of her face, the throbbing of her bruise constantly reminding her of her situation, despite thinking of home or her friends, or even that cave from just a few hours ago.

She jumped in her seat at the massive truck sped across the desert, her hands bound behind her chair, making each jerk more uncomfortable at the ropes violently ran across her wrists, abrasively. She had attempted to examine her surroundings, but was instantly punished with a swift kick to her body by her captor, though she had been able to see Junkrat in the same room as her.

He was on the other side of the room, head shaking freely in his unconsciousness. Mei could only barely make him out in the corner of her eye, knowing she'd feel slightly safer if only he would wake her up, though knowing that being asleep offered a despite from this misery.

The only other person here was the man who'd administered her punishment. Oliver stood at a desk, bolted down to the bottom of the trailer, with a collection of boxes that had been collected at Junkrat's hovel before leaving. He'd been going through them since they'd gotten here, angrily muttering phrases of incompetence or stupidity.

His frustration building, he finally grasped onto one of the objects, furiously winding up and throwing it against the wall with a loud *CLANG* as he growled angrily, "How in the fuck-!"

He breathed through his nose, heatedly, staring at Mei, "For one so dedicated to restoring this hell hole, you certainly enjoy screwing around with a lot of shit. Not merely with that rat over there; there's nothing here of value."

Oliver shook his head impatiently, "Are you on board, yet, with our little plan, missy?"

Mei clenched her teeth, "I told you, I'm not-"

Oliver slammed a large piece of metal against his desk, the crashing sound ringing in her ears as he rounded the table, his eyes thin with anger. He grabbed a bucket of water as he walked over to Junkrat, grabbing a tuft of his hair before yanking it backward, pouring the water over his face. Soon enough, Junkrat burst awake at the sensation of drowning, spitting at coughing as Oliver threw his face downward again, throwing the bucket to the other side of the room, leaving Junkrat gasping for breath.

"YOU!" Oliver shouted, "Convince her! I've gotten a shit ton done as is; I'll happily kill you both before I let Arch have you to himself."

He grunted angrily as he reached for the door, slamming it closed just before the only sounds left in the room were the grinding of wheels on dirt and Junkrat's sputtering attempts at coughing up the water that had gone down his nose. As he slowly recovered, he quickly found Mei sitting across from him, her head hung low helplessly.

"They didn't hurt ya, did they?" he asked, gravely, "I told ya they were sickos."

Mei didn't speak, but lifted her head to offer him a glance, though his only retort was an angry tug at his ropes as he saw her bruised face, "That tears it! I'm gonna beat the tar outta them!"

He could only tug for so long before exhaustion caught up to him, his own head dangling limply as he gasped for breath, "What did he mean?"

Mei silently watched her feet against the floor, still, as she spoke up, quietly, "I guess word got out. He wants me to do what I was sent here to do, but under his watch; basically heal enough land for him to rent out to people so they can all come groveling to him. Of course, I do this work for everyone, or no one."

"Ah. I see," Junkrat nodded, weakly, "That makes the water a bit more bearable, then."

Mei tried to hold back a sob, but found quickly that she had no tears to shed, anyway, her voice almost croaking, "I-I'm so sorry to put you through this. Just because of my-"

"Oh, hush now, sheila," Junkrat confirmed, warmly, "It's my just desserts anyway. I've been playin' these guys for fools for years now; it's about time they finally wise up. I'm just sad they had ta use me ta get to you. and even more sad that they want ya to do somethin' so devilish."

He shrugged, just barely, "Ya know, I've been a whippin' boy, tossed around 'n stomped on. I've never had a cause or reason for sufferin'. This is actually one of those noble causes I keep hearin' about!"

Mei eyed him, what with all his talk of martyrdom, "Now you hush. We're getting out of here. Faree- Pharah will be here and save us, I just know it. And after this much time, she's sure to have friends!"

Unsure, Junkrat only shrugged again, lowering his head, "We'll see, I s'pose."

Mei watched him sadly as he tried to rest his muscles, but to no avail. He couldn't get comfortable, which Mei knew the feeling well by her own ropes. Suddenly, they both jumped at the sound of a lock turning, the two lowering their heads as Oliver stomped on in again, more calm than when he'd left. He didn't acknowledge the two, simply walking up to and around the desk, digging his hands into the next box.

"Nice to have you both awake," he spoke, evenly, as he pulled out different parts, examining them, "It might help me get what I want. Oh, and torture just isn't nearly as fun without noise."

He quietly went through the box for a few moments, his eyes flashing up toward Mei, "You're not from here, obviously. Has your rat, here, taught you the unspoken rules of us Junkers? Of course, it varies, but there are two things you need to know in order to survive down here."

He raised a finger, "One, take what you can. No more, no less."

Another finger, "And two, you earn respect. I didn't get where I am, today, because I cheated my way up with cheap trickery and explosives. Not like this rat here."

He shook his head, "God, you got unlucky. If my guys had taken you instead of the woman… We'd have had rather nice accommodations for you right now. Archibald would've just thrown you to his men, no doubt."

Oliver shrugged, pulling out a small sphere of a thing, looking over it, rapidly flipping a switch on it repeatedly, groaning, "Maybe not. You can't even make worthwhile shit. Maybe I should'a left you with the men; they-"

His eyes rose up toward Mei, whose eyes were open wide in astonishment, staring behind him. Oliver quickly spun around, his whole body turning, checking out the wall. Mei quickly shut her eyes, shielding herself from the beam that shot out of her Cerebral Projector. Oliver turned back around, slowly, angrily staring at Mei as she stared back, though watching behind him.

A screen showed up there, behind him, the projector just barely shining vast his thumb as it rested in his hand, which sat at his side, aimed backward. Behind him shone a calm-looking scene: the interior of a small house, overlooking the Australian countryside, it seemed. The yard was covered in green grass, shrubbery; it looked like perhaps a home for a young couple and their child.

Mei's eyes narrowed, however. It seemed as if the deeper the thought, the deeper in the scene that thought was. Deep in the background, along one of the far walls of the home, were the numbers 5-13-22, painted on the wall. Oliver suddenly spun his neck around, seeing the projection upon the wall behind him, a look of nostalgia appearing on his face for but a brief moment before anger took its place, his neck whipping back around at Mei.

"WHAT?!" he snarled, loudly, "What was that?!"

He quickly threw the orb onto the ground, rushing around the desk, before grabbing at Mei, furiously, lifting her up out of her chair by her neck, his voice heated with rage, "Nobody make a fool of Oliver-".

With a loud *THUD*, Oliver immediately slid down onto the ground, dropping Mei back into her seat. She stared at the man, terrified, before turning to see Junkrat with a large piece of Omnium equipment in his hands, a look of retribution on his face as he threw the scrap at Oliver's lifeless body.

"Don't worry," he muttered, happily, "I've been makin' a fool of him for years, now. He ain't nothin'!"

He giggled as he crouched behind Mei, working on her knots as she stared out the window, curiously, Junkrat's happy voice still going, "He shoulda known better than ta leave me bound with some of my-!"

"Look!" Mei shouted, nearly jumping out of her chair with excitement.

Outside of the window just beside her, Mei's eyes grew wide in an instant, seeing the sight of a dark apparition flying alongside the convoy, hooded with an Anubis-styled helmet. She raised her hand into the air as if rooting for a sports team as Junkrat released her, Mei scurrying to her feet.

"GO PHARAH GO!" she shouted, excitedly, "Okay! We have to find Daisy! Pharah will take care of everything else, but I'm not about to lose Daisy after all this!"

Junkrat nodded in agreement, "A'right, but we'll have to find her first. These guys usually have their best loot in the bigger trucks."

"Alrighty. And we already have a combination to a safe, if that's where she is," Mei winked quickly, "I haven't been this excited since we all went snowballing in Antarctica!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am incredibly aware that action is incredibly difficult to write, at least if you want it to be good and compelling. I think my writing suffers heavily as a result, so I'll try to keep the scenes short and moving quickly. If you guys have found writers on here that can write action well, feel free to PM me- I'd love to read them and try and learn from them!
> 
> If you haven't already surmised, the idea for this setting came almost exclusively from the Mad Max films, which turns out to be very difficult to emulate in the written word. When I adapt these into films, it'll be much better xD

Pharah eyed the lead truck of the convoy, knowing it would be impossible to jump along the series of vehicles from back to front. She hurriedly checked her wrist, her suit about to expel the last of its energy. She groaned under her breath, slipping her thumb across her index finger, her rocket pack suddenly launching her into the air, over toward the single truck that led the others, along with its long trailer.

She landed with a massive crash, kneeling on the top of the eighteen-wheeler to regain her balance, which was difficult at the speed she was going. Suddenly, her head shot up as a Junker whipped his body up out of the truck's windows, swinging a gun around. He fired, Pharah just barely falling to the side before instinctively pulling her hand up, firing a concussion blast.

The Junker fall back, slung over either side of the window, but the blast forced the truck all over the place, and it swung back in forth as the driver desperately attempted to remain in control. Pharah quickly fell from the top of its trailer, hanging on the edge just before it ended up out of reach. She grunted as she held herself up, just noticing a car slowly pulling in close to the trailer to reach her.

She slid her thumb once more, her rockets expelling the last of their energy as she flew up in a circle, still holding on to the trailer, now on her back. She jumped to her feet, quickly rushing near the front of the truck, slamming a fist into the sheet metal before peeking in.

Her eyes couldn't adjust fast enough, so she pulled herself out, reaching up to her ear, "Angela, how accurate can we get that GPS on her? It'll take me forever to-"

Suddenly, a burst of an explosion suddenly blew the air, a small plume of smoke rising from another trailered truck a few vehicles back. Pharah watched for only a brief moment before standing up.

"Never mind."

She quickly ran down the length of the trailer, jumping at the last moment to the smaller truck behind it, careful to maintain her balance. The Junker driving eyed her evilly, whipping out a pistol, but Pharah had already pulled herself up above him as bullets flew past her. She dashed along the length of this truck to, aiming for another eighteen-wheeler type vehicle driving beside it.

She made a hurried jump, the sounds of gunshots ringing in her ear, and she grasped the roof of its trailer, pulling herself up as fast as she could. Though, as she took to her feet, a Junker stood at the other end, wielding a crudely-made flail patting it in his hand as if its spiked ball phased him none. He grimaced as Pharah watched him, surprised, knowing that her element of such things would no longer apply, it seemed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei pulled her hands from her ears as Junkrat giddily ran over to the door of Oliver's truck, his rushed explosive having ruined the lock. He kicked the door down, making a nice bridge to the trailer that was latched to this one by chains. He grabbed Mei's hand and helped her across, her eyes not looking down as she crossed the flimsy bridge.

"A'right!" Junkrat muttered, "Wait here; I need ta get up top and find this thing."

The two shared nods as he hopped up toward the top of Oliver's trailer, his feet scurring along the wall as he tried to hunt for a foothold, though Mei hurried to lift her arms, pushing him up. He stared off behind where they were, noticing a massive rig at the center of the convoy, possibly for maximum protection.

He nodded, looking back down to Mei, "I think we-!"

Mei was struggling with a Junker who'd appeared and had her against the wall, seemingly trying to choke her down. Junkrat's eyes went wide with anger as he jumped down, but by the time he'd recovered, Mei had swung a fist around, clocking the guy in the face, knocking him out. He fell to the side, but Mei grabbed him before he could fall between the two cars, but nearly fell as well above his weight. Junkrat grasped her helping bring the body up.

"S-Sorry!" she shouted, "I-I-I don't want to-"

Junkrat smiled, "Nah, I gotcha! Leave it to me!"

He threw the body back into Oliver's trailer before crashing through the door into the trailer behind, grabbing Mei's hand as he guided her through the maze.

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Pharah ran down the length of the trailer, toward the Junker, who was still smirking devilishly. He quickly whipped his flail around, preparing to defend himself, lifting his arm up, but just out of his reach, Pharah fell, sliding down between his legs and through them, before quickly spinning around and kicking his legs out from under him. The Junker fell to the ground, rushing to recover, but Pharah kicked his flail off into the dirt beneath the truck.

The two reached their feet, Pharah punching into her open palm, the Junker obviously intimidated by her armor against his bare skin. Still, he snarled, rushing forward and throwing a punch, which Pharah quickly parried, twisting to the side and kneeing the man in the stomach, pushing off her other foot until she knocked him backward, running her knee further into his midsection as he slammed into the trailer.

She grunted angrily as she stood up, kicking him off of the top of the trailer, turning back to find where the smoke had been. However, she immediately saw Mei rushing across the top of another vehicle, along with somebody else, which she assumed was that Junkrat fellow. She hurried along, careful to avoid any of the armed drivers, her face still with focus.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

As Mei and Junkrat arrived at their destination, Junkrat carefully opened the door into the trailer, a gasp of astonishment eeking out from him as Mei hurried on in, leaving him to close the door behind them. Sure enough, this truck harbored nothing but a mobile stockpile of treasures, along with a wall of safes, though most of what was inside here were piles of valuable scrap material, as well as old paper money and some collections of gold.

"Well holey dooley," Junkrat admired, absently, as Mei ran toward one of the safes, clicking in the numbers she'd taken from Oliver's head.

No good.

"Come on!" she shouted, angrily, as she moved on to the next run, hurrying her hand, twisting around the lock.

Junkrat turned to encourage her, but in that second, the door was kicked open, a pair of Junkers rushing in with baseball bats. Junkrat quickly dodged one swing before tacking the guy, grabbing his bat and throwing it at the other Junker as he approached Mei.

The Junker beneath managed a vicious punch to Junkrat, launching him off, though as he spun around to finish the job, Junkrat grinned, "Takes a lickin!"

He grabbed a hearty piece of metal and brought it up into the Junker's face, knocking him off, before jumping to his feet, eyeing the other brawler, "Keeps on tickin'."

The other Junker sneered as he picked up the bat that had been thrown at him, but in that second, a squeal of delight exited Mei's mouth as she swung the safe door open, knocking the heavy iron into the Junker's face. He slowly fell against the wall before sliding down to the ground, leaving Junkrat to nod approvingly.

"A'right! Nice one, sheila!" he admired as Mei carefully grabbed Daisy by the pot, handling her close to herself.

"Now what?" she asked.

Junkrat thought for a moment, "Well, I suppose we commandeer one of these vehicles and get out of here? Might be difficult, though; that'll surely plant a target on us the size of Tasmania."

He shrugged, "Your pal should have a plan, right? Let's just ask 'em?"

Mei nodded, "Sounds good to- Oh! Hey, help me look for something in here."

"Eh?" he asked, "Look for what?"

"Just a radio or transmitter or something; we can contact her or, better yet, rout off of her connection back to Overwatch!" Mei shouted, excitedly, suddenly burying herself in a pile of equipment.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Oliver dizzily walked along toward the exit of his trailer, holding his head, angrily. Clutching at his hair, he sneered to himself as he grabbed for his radio, bringing it to his mouth, "We're on high alert. The highest of alerts. Get that fuckin' Junker and that girl!"

He grunted as he reached up for a ladder leading up top, though with his headache, it was difficult enough to do. He managed to pull himself up, but as his head peered over the roof, off into the distance behind the convoy, his eyes closed, warily.

"Fuck," he mumbled.

He reached for his radio once more, "And do prepare for Archibald's men. They seem to be hot on our trail."

He received an affirmative noise before slamming the radio against the rooftop, angrily, shaking his head as he swayed back and forth on his way up.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Pharah stomped along quickly, jumping from truck to truck. She'd seen the two of them hopping down to, apparently, run into a certain trailer, so she continued moving toward it, the voice of Angela cracking into her ear.

"Winston says we have an income-"

"WE HAVE AN INCOMING TRANSMISSION!" Winston's voice interrupted, causing Pharah to clutch her ear, painfully, as Winston quickly adjusted his volume, tipped off by Angela's sudden yelp, "S-Sorry! But yes, incoming transmission. Do we take it?"

"It might…be Mei," Pharah breathed in between her panting, "She's out…and about."

Angela spoke up, "We're gonna take it, right?"

"Maybe," Winston pondered aloud, "It could be the Junkers trying to intercept-"

"The only thing they can intercept is a bit of scrap; let Mei through," Angela quipped.

Winston groaned, flipping a series of switched at his desk, a soft whirring appearing in everybody's speakers as he patched the signal in.

"Mei?" Angela asked, quickly.

"….I see you."

Pharah's eyes shot open as she stopped, quickly looking around. She spun around, a man clothed in an all-black attire, down to his long-sleeved shirt, holding a walkie-talkie to his mouth with a snarling grin.

"Who was-"

"Alqarf…" Pharah cursed in Arabic, shaking her head.

The man eyed her as she turned to continue, but in that second, a searing pain ran through her side as he legs gave out on her. She fell forward, grasping for her abdomen as she noticed a gunshot wound, the sound of it completely having been lost by the pain shooting through her. She grunted desperately, trying to crawl along.

"PHARAH!" Angela shouted, supposedly with an eye on her vitals.

Pharah knew any dip in her heartrate was cause for concern, simply because she was always to even-keeled. But now, though she angrily blew hot breath through clenched teeth, she couldn't escape the fear creeping around her.

Suddenly, a robotic voice broke her shell, as Angela narrated, "I started the pain killers; get out NOW!"

Pharah slid a leg up between herself and the truck, pushing herself up with her knee, managing to reach onto all-fours as she took a heavy breath, noticing her muscles and side beginning to relax. As she stood, a wild kick shoved itself into her wound, causing her to cry out as she fell forward again, the man having caught up to her.

He stood over her, "I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Pharah quickly recognized him upon hearing his voice. Oliver. She whipped her body around to confront him, but he'd already had a finger on the trigger, shooting into the roof of the trailer, just missing her, though causing her to pause, stunned. He kept his aim true, though his eyes peered ahead, wincing against the sunlight, his face seeming wild against the furious whipping of his hair.

Pharah quickly shot a leg toward him, though he instantly jumped back to avoid his legs being swept away. He threw his gun at Pharah's face, knocking her head to the side as he pounced over toward her, grasping her hair and lifting her up to meet his insane eyes.

"I believe we'll swap the trade this time around. Send Archibald my regards, would you?"

He suddenly whipped her to the side, her body rolling off of the rooftop. As if on call, she fell onto an awaiting sort of vehicle, the wind knocked out of her as her back landed solidly onto something. She could only make out the dark visage of Oliver as her eyes clouded with tears of pain and fury, her teeth clenched.

Though, in a split moment, she felt her consciousness leave her as a massive *BANG* rang out behind her, her back seeming to have torn in to as the wind suddenly blew warmly into her face. Oliver stood there, slightly pleased, as the cannon below launched that woman's body into the air, powerfully, her body coursing through the air, back toward the approaching convoy of Archibald.

He shrugged, indifferently, his attention turning toward the center of his own convoy. He slipped his radio into his pocket, his connection already having been terminated, and he sauntered on along, as if this were just another day for him.


	14. Chapter 14

Fareeha awoke, almost lazily, as her eyelids slowly broke apart, staring up into the white abyss that she'd always done, save for the times when Angela's hair had managed to make its way up over her face. She hadn't ever particularly minded, as she could feel it before opening her eyes, anyway, but on the occasions where she was simply met with the ceiling, it truly felt as though it were a loss.

The most devastating loss was that Angela's warmth wasn't accompanying her in this bed. Her mind thought back to the night before; oftentimes they took turns on who got to curl up with the other- maybe it was her turn to be wrapped around Angela and she'd simply rolled away, inexplicably, in her sleep.

No, no. She heard running water. Angela had gotten up and had begun to start the day, leaving Fareeha in bed, restlessly turning to her side, seeking some sort of comfort as she buried her head in her pillow. It was one of those mornings, she thought; she'd be terrified to look into a mirror and see her hair. For the longest time, she'd been embarrassed for Angela to see her so disheveled, but after enough of the doctor's peeking at her as she quickly moved to find a brush, along with her words that she thought it was cute, Fareeha simply was embarrassed for herself to be seen in such a state.

She heard Angela's steps as she turned in the shower, and her eyes crept open to check her nightstand, noticing her music player had been pilfered from its charger. A sudden jolt of rock music faintly blaring out from the bathroom quickly suspended any suspicion as to where it went.

As she closed her eyes, Fareeha's lips curled into a grin against her pillow as Angela's voice gradually began to accompany the song, and although the song was in Greek, it didn't bother Angela, apparently, to try and make sense of the words in English, "I wanna set your house on fi-re!"

Fareeha suddenly snorted out a laugh, shaking her head as she buried her wide smile into her pillow, Angela's improvisation still running along like the shower, "Your baby's getting the lunch pail! Only on Wednesdays!"

She'd already surrendered the idea of any further sleep, but Fareeha remained where she was, more or less hiding for when Angela left the shower. She had no idea Fareeha heard her doing this, which was odd, considering how into it Angela would get, sometimes even belting out vocal solos. If she had checked, she would have found that Fareeha would take her favorite of her lover's misheard lyrics and place them in the actual lyrics on the player, though that never crossed her mind.

The squeal of the shower handle rang out as the water stopped, with Angela hurriedly shutting off the speaker in the shower. Fareeha heard her stepping out of the shower, though that was the extent of what she could ascertain for a few minutes, until she heard a sudden *click* beside her as Angela quietly returned the music player to its proper spot.

Fareeha would have loved nothing more than to find her near-nude lover in the act, but more so than the idea of teasing her to no end, she was awfully afraid that, if Angela knew, she would stop doing it, and her singing had been the highlight of Fareeha's mornings for months now.

She heard Angela stepping away, leaving Fareeha with her restless movements, acting as though she were just now stirring awake from her sleep. Angela's footfalls grew rapid as she rolled onto her back, sleepily, lifting her head to examine the room around her. She lazily rolled along across the bed, making it to the edge, and she slowly stood up, rubbing her eyes with a yawn, fixing the strap of her pajama top before slowly making her way out of the room.

Crossing the threshold immediately took you across from the bathroom, its door open as light filtered out. Fareeha slowly approached, finding Angela standing in front of the mirror, hair collected up at the top of her head in a fanciful twist, strands of hair falling like starlight behind her. Fareeha smiled as she watched her in the mirror, the doctor carefully poking and prodding at her face, hunting down any blemishes.

Her eyes suddenly shot down the mirror, right at Fareeha's reflection, her stare unamused at the idea of being watched during such an activity, "Can I help you?"

"No," Fareeha shrugged, her arms crossed as she leaned into the frame of the door, "I've just tried and tried to figure it out; I don't know how you manage to be so beautiful."

Angela scoffed, rolling her eyes as her leg reached over toward the door, kicking it closed, though it didn't finish its journey, leaving Fareeha enough space to see her lover's smile, though it quickly disappeared as Angela leaned over the counter, hanging her head as if trying to handle the words she'd just heard.

Fareeha grinned, her work finished, as she walked off, rounding the table before entering the kitchen. She quickly gathered an assortment of ingredients, the soft smell of eggs , tomatoes, and cheese fluttering in the air as she slowly whipped up an omelet, careful not to burn any portion of it. She stood, vigilant, over the stove, only breaking her concentration once Angela appeared behind her, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug.

"Hello, Chef Amari," she teased, wryly.

Fareeha shrugged her shoulders, as if to free herself, "Doctor, do you always treat your patients with such a lack of clothing?"

Angela reached her head over to kiss her arm, "Only the really, really good ones."

She walked to the refrigerator, ducking into it as Fareeha's eyes wandered toward her. She had taken to wearing Fareeha's shirts, as they were larger and managed to cover her modestly enough so that she rarely had to wear much else. She pulled out a carton of milk, reaching over to pour some into the egg mixture that she, now, designated as her own.

"I mean, I could char it too," Fareeha quipped, "It'd be just as appetizing."

Angela smirked at her, sticking her tongue out as she poured some into two glasses, "You're just jealous that I know good food. All those MREs must have ruined your palette, poor thing."

She turned back to the fridge, but was caught in Fareeha's grasp as she pulled her backward into her side, reaching up to hold her cheek so she could turn it up toward her, "I think I have a good idea of what tastes I enjoy."

Angela immediately blew up into a blush, hurriedly smacking Fareeha as she pulled away from her, annoyingly returning to the fridge, "J-Just finish breakfast, alright?"

Fareeha grinned, devilishly, "Yes ma'am."

Now flustered, Angela simply went off into a torrent of words as she took the two glasses around to the bar on the other side of the counter, "I swear, I wake up and all I hear is this and that. Just because you can spout out romantic nothings like it's a bodily function. One of these days, you'll see; I'll get you."

Fareeha simply went on smirking, carefully finishing up the omelets before plating them, turning to place them atop the counter before reaching for a small pot of herbs that sat on the counter, pulling off a bit of rosemary to place atop Angela's plate, "A sprig of rosemary for my-"

Angela shook her head, unenthused, "Not that one, dear."

Fareeha sighed, defeated, before joining her partner at the counter, the two beginning to eat as Fareeha spoke up, "So you're headed out on business today?"

"Mhmm," Angela confirmed with a nod, "U.N. stuff. Nothing as exciting as your trip."

Fareeha laughed between a mouthful of food, "Playing with rocks is fun? Boy did we grow up differently."

"I mean, Mei could make anything fun. The Inquisition? She'd give a passionate lecture on being drawn and quartered; you'd think she was trying to sell you on the experience."

Nodding, Fareeha grinned as she chewed, "I suppose. It's important work, too. I'll just keep reminding myself of that."

She rolled a piece of her omelet over, absently, "…no matter how difficult that may be."

"Look at you," Angela groaned behind a smirk, "One of these days you'll be wishing you had such an easy mission. I used to think these trivial desk-like jobs were for the birds, but I sort of enjoy them now."

She lowered her head toward her plate, her words escaping as a quiet mumble "It's nice knowing the people I'm speaking to will still be there tomorrow."

Fareeha slowly reached an arm around her shoulders, pulling her as close to herself as she dared, given the rocky nature of these barstools, giving a demure sort of grim smile, "Okay. I'll be damn happy about this mission."

"Oh hush; you're just-"

"I'm serious!" Fareeha shrugged, "You're right; I should really learn to appreciate these sorts of things. I mean, sure, it's not exactly what I had in mind when I dreamed of joining Overwatch."

She bent her head down against Angela's, gently rubbing her messy hair against her perfectly golden locks, "But I never expected to fall in love, either. So I need to temper my expectations. Just a slight bit."

Angela rolled her eyes with a shake of her head, finishing her demonstration of amusement with a stare up toward her lover, "You're such an idiot sometimes."

"Compliment received, doctor," Fareeha cooed playfully, "I'm your idiot after all."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fareeha stood in front of the bathroom mirror, staring ashamedly at her messy hair, almost groaning aloud, though not wanting to bring attention to herself. Angela was busy finishing up her packing anyway, so Fareeha kept her annoyance to herself.

She reached down, clutched the hem of her black tank top, pulling it up over her as she prepared for her shower, though as she dropped it to the ground, her eyes stared blankly into the mirror, almost darkly so. A dark sort of craggy mark ran down her chest in an irregular pattern, a remnant from the gunshot she'd sustained back in Ilios. The dark skin that almost suffocated her body had all but vanished, though this scar-like tissue remained. It ran down between her breasts before curving off to one side; a very noticeable condition, at least if you were the only person to be welcomed into Fareeha's body in such a way.

Suddenly, her head jerked up as she noticed Angela watching her through the mirror just like earlier; though, this time, they found each other on the opposite end of their reflections. Angela's face grew heavy, though Fareeha's remained still, the doctor taking a step closer toward her lover.

Fareeha lowered her head dismissively as Angela strode up to her, quietly, stopping at her back. Peering over her shoulder, she calmly reached her hand up, holding steady against Fareeha's stomach, near where the scar began, her voice as still as the waters on a lake.

"I'm so sorry."

Instantly, Fareeha grasped her hand, "Don't. It's not your fault. You know that."

Angela didn't reply, quietly rubbing her hand up the scar, her eyes peering seriously into the polished glass before them. Her hand crept up Fareeha's skin, running gently along the tender skin between her breasts, finally stopping atop the opposite end of the dark crease along her lover's beautifully tan skin.

She leaned her head forward, resting her forehead against Fareeha's sturdy back, clutching around her body with both arms, "Come back safe. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Good thing you'll never have to find out, " Fareeha spoke deeply, a tremor running through to Angela's body as she spoke, "I'm never going to-"

"Get up."

Fareeha stared into the mirror, a curiosity growing on her face, "What? Babe, I'm already-"

"Get up."

Angela's voice was soft, yet strained, as if she'd been crying those words out not too long ago. It was quiet, almost faintly so. Fareeha spun around staring into Angela's warm eyes.

"Babe! I'm a-"

"Get up!"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blue skies suddenly encompassed her, Angela's comforting warmth immediately turning into sweltering heat brushing across her face. Her muscles instantly tightened as she tried to move, but couldn't. She knew her body well, though; she knew she wasn't paralyzed, and that she was probably just in some state of shock as her memory flooded back into her mind.

Suddenly it stopped, as Angela's voice softly flowed into her ear. Such a weak voice, as if shed already run the gambit of shouting out, speaking it through tears, and now, was just simply attempting to muster up any strength to speak anything to her.

"Get up… please…"

Fareeha's teeth clenched as she tried to obey, but her joints were all locked up. Instantly, though, she remembered the threat as her ears picked up wheels on dirt, a large sound like a train growing in the distance, on its way to trample her. She groaned, seemingly alerting Angela to her being awake as a gasp came from her speaker. Fareeha could tell the pain relievers had probably softened her impact, and even now, she couldn't feel much of any pain.

She gripped the dirt with her fingers, attempting to push herself up, but unable to. Her eyes turned fierce, her body trying anything to do as Angela said, but only panic settled in as the pounding of wheels grew intensely closer.

Suddenly, a motor emerged, closer than the rest. Fareeha couldn't even turn her head, her eyes darting to the side of her head, trying to ascertain this new threat. Her heart raced as the motor slowed as it came up near her, still running as a door swung open, feet hitting the ground. Fareeha growled lowly, unable to even find words.

Then, that Roadhog appeared above her, staring down at her through his mask. Fareeha's eyes shot open wide in shock, almost turning to tears in relief, though before she could do anything, the large man bent down grasping her under her arms and dragging her backward, toward the car. He swung the backdoor open before sliding her in, hopping into the driver's seat and immediately hitting the gas, nearly slamming Fareeha into the back padding of the car.

As if the slight friction and movement had woken her nervous system, feeling began to return to her. She began to breathe easier as she moved more and more joints, hearing Angela in her ear calling off her biorhythms as they evened out through a tearful voice.

The doctor muttered, weakly, under her breath, "Tell me you love me."

Without pause, Fareeha answered, "I love you."

Roadhog's head darted up toward the rear-view mirror, catching her in a sudden shock, "N-No! I was talking to- never mind…"

The man shook his head as he turned back to the road, leaving Fareeha to wipe the nervous sweat from her face. She leaned forward, eying the plume of smoke from Oliver's convoy up ahead in the distance. Her fingers crawled into a fist as she thought of Mei up there, alone.

She wouldn't let her down this time.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Blizzard just released a short today that, apparently, is centered around Mei, so I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist until I finish this, lest I face potentially re-writing major sections of this.
> 
> 2) Once again, I apologize for my "action writing". I should just release alternate chapters where it just explains what happens- it'd be a lot faster, I'm sure xD
> 
> 3) While I'm here, I've managed to stumble upon some stories on here that I love, but their writers have stopped writing for a considerable amount of time, probably for good, leaving those stories unfinished. I feel somewhat obligated to explain that I have no plans to quit, at least not in the middle of anything- I may have projects that I haven't written for in a long time, but they will certainly be completed. I love writing, I would very much love to make it a career at some distant point in my life when pigs fly, and honestly, I have no social life, so these fictional characters are all the "social time" I get xD No writing means none of that, so I can't stop :p
> 
> TL;DR - Thanks for reading :D I hope my action writing isn't too boring xD

Junkrat's head whipped around as a loud burst of explosives rang through the trailer walls around the two of them, though Mei was too far gone in trying to work the small radio she'd found to notice the tremor. Hurriedly, he grabbed her arm and began making his way to the door, much to her surprise. He swung the door open and pushed her out as he spoke up, quickly.

"We need to get out of here," his voice shook, "I don't wanna be here any longer than we have ta. Let's work our way back; the smaller cars run in back ta hide their numbers."

Mei nodded, content with simply following his lead. Her focus was on holding onto Daisy anyway, though she nearly shook loose as another crash of fire broke the air around them.

"What was that?!" Mei shouted.

Junkrat grunted, "Olivah's cannons. Archey must be approaching, so he's tryin' ta take him out. That means Archey's sendin' out some bikes to ride up and take 'em out."

He thought for a moment, "That could be good 'r bad, I dunno. On one hand, it's confusion, on the otha', it's more things to target us randomly."

His eyes darted toward her, earnestly, "Ya aren't exactly one to fit in a crowd down here; if anybody sees ya, they may just know to get ya."

Mei shivered, but ultimately smiled, "Yeah, but I have a mean uppercut!"

Junkrat grinned, "And somebody ta protect ya! So let's get on movin'!"

Mei gave a sort of quick salute as they continued moving on down the line, in and out of trailers, over rooftops. Junkrat made sure not to mention Oliver, must less how deadly he was, though he made sure to keep an eye out whenever he could afford to peer over his shoulder.

As they climbed up one of the larger trucks, sure enough, a swarm of motorbikes sped across the sand toward the convoy, swerving to avoid gunfire. Junkrat's teeth clenched as he held onto Mei, rushing her over to the end of the trailer.

"Let's stay off the roofs for the moment," he muttered.

Mei nodded in agreement as she crawled down onto the metal hook that linked the next trailer to this one, like two train cars. Junkrat peered over his shoulder, but as he did, he suddenly heard a shriek from below. He spun back around to find Mei gone, the door to the next trailer flapping in the breeze.

His eyes jumped open wide as he jumped down, rushing in after them, finding Mei on the opposite end, held in the grasp of a monster-like Junker, at least due to his massive size. He sneered as he and Junkrat eyed one another. He lifted his arms, and Mei, off of the trailer, threatening to drop her to be trampled to death. Junkrat shouted out, but before he could rush him, the Junker dropped her, her body disappearing with a loud cry.

Junkrat yelled out as he ran down the corridor, though the Junker caught him with a quick kick to the stomach, slamming him against wall. He quickly recovered, narrowly avoiding another kick to his face, though he took the chance to grasp the Junker's leg, pulling him off balance and to the ground as Junkrat pounced onto him, slamming his fists against him in a rage.

The Junker managed to grab hold of him, throwing him off and back toward the open door leading out into nothing except sheer death. Sliding to a stop, Junkrat jumped up, quickly looking outside, his eyes open wide in shock.

Mei was alive, albeit captive in a car behind him, but she was alive nonetheless! He smiled happily, though as the Junker behind him stomped toward him, his face grew into a mischievous grin. The Junker ran at him, trying to wrestle his arms around him, but Junkrat expertly timed his jump, grabbing the small asking above, twisting his body and kicking backward, knocking the Junker off into the sands below on the weight of his own momentum. Dropping to his feet, Junkrat now watched the car, angrily, attempting to figure out his next move to free it.

It wasn't as if a solution was going to fall right out of the sky, after all.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei struggled with the Junker in the back seat with her, trying to hold her down. Finally freeing an arm, she grabbed ahold of the metallic sphere in her pocket, whipping her fist against the Junker's face, knocking him unconscious as the driver frantically spun his head around, terrified. He reached back to grab at her, but in losing control of the vehicle, he quickly returned to the wheel.

He stared into the rear-view mirror as Mei stood up, scurrying up toward the sunroof, his eyes nearly bolting from his head in anger. He knew, though, that she couldn't go anywhere, so he took a calm breath, driving along outside of amy sort of jumping distance to the other vehicles.

She couldn't possibly just fly away, he knew.

Mei's hair flapped violently in the breeze as she knelt atop the car, grasping on to the edges of the sunroof, assuming that she wouldn't be thrown off or anything, using her importance to them as leverage in this case. She squinted her eyes, looking forward to Junkrat, who was only staring back in terror at her maneuver.

He whipped out a small mine from his pocket, dropping it at the edge of the trailer before backing up, ready to make the leap to Mei's position. If he were quick enough, just maybe, they could commandeer that vehicle and escape. He took a running start, his heart racing, finger clasped on a small red switch that rest atop a small trigger in his hand.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pharah grabbed ahold of both seats as she leaned forward, noticing Mei up ahead, crawling out of a car's sunroof. She watched in terror, but also confusion. She must have been trying to escape whomever was inside, but what she was doing was madness.

"What in the hell…" she muttered aloud, her and Roadhog both watching, curiously terrified at the sight.

Suddenly, she hurried to check the small reading on her wrist, turning back up toward Mei, "Hey! Can you whip this car around? like a slingshot? I don't have enough energy to get over there, but I think I can rescue her!"

Roadhog stroked the wheel, nodding knowingly, "I can do things with this car that would make couples weep."

"Excellent," Pharah replied, "Give me a second; I'll slap the roof or something to signal you."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei made sure to grasp tightly onto the car, her other arm securely holding onto Daisy, doing her best to shield it from the whipping air. Now that she was up here, though, she had little idea of what to do. She had a faint expectation of hopping onto a nearby vehicle to escape, but the driver seemed aware of such a thing, leaving them marooned in a small space between a bunch of large trucks. Her eyes peered up against the wind, seeing Junkrat rush back into the shadows of the trailer, out of sight. Surely he had a plan.

A split second later, she heard a sound like coursing air, before immediately being launched into the air, spinning forward, wildly. Pharah had been launched through the air, coming down on the hood of the car, completely crushing it into the dust below, the momentum throwing Mei through the air. Pharah's eyes immediately drew up into the sky, tracking Mei's speedy trajectory, before she launched herself into the air with a violent jerk of her body it was so sudden.

She caught her in midair, aiming to land atop the next trailer, but in misjudging the added weight, she just barely managed to land right in the doorway, just as Junkrat came barreling through toward them. Pharah noticed at the last second, but couldn't do anything with her arms full besides blowing her eyes wide in shock. Mei, however, grabbed ahold of two hands on either side of the door as Junkrat began to slide into them, trying his best to stop, but to no avail.

The three bent out above the violent ground below, but Mei's arms held true, pulling the three of them the short distance back into the trailer just before the three of them collapsed in either shock, horror, or exhaustion.

Mei tried her best to get her breath, but spoke up anyway, "Well, uh, Pharah, this is Jamison. Jamison, Pharah."

Pharah and Junkrat exchanged pleasantries before rising to their feet, leaving Pharah to explain, "Roadhog's back there; we just have to wait for him and hop off this crazy thing."

"Roadhog?!" the others immediately shouted in unison, giving Pharah a confused nod.

Mei happily jumped toward Junkrat, "I told you!"

"A'right, a'right," he grinned lightly, "Don't have ta rub it in, ya know."

Mei turned to Pharah, "Then we can-!"

Pharah's look was one of pure stone, her eyes staring angrily down the hallway toward Oliver, who'd finally caught up with them. Mei took a step back behind Pharah as she noticed him, terrified. The Junker peered ahead, which seemed to be beyond them, like he wasn't all there, though his expression was one of frustration.

"You don't bother to send a single bit of aid down here to us, and now, now that we're 'of interest' to Overwatch, now you suddenly care about this place. Well, I'll tell you what, you're going to have to rip it from my cold, dead hands," Oliver's heated voice nearly scorched the air as he spoke, his anger brimming.

Pharah scowled at him, her own anger reaching its peak at how she'd, and most importantly, Mei, had been treated. She was simply a tool for him to use; a objectifying sort of role that Pharah had long detested. She reached over, pulling Mei further behind her as Oliver shook his head, dismissively.

"I thought I killed you," he groaned, unhappily, "Guess I'll just try again. You first, than the rat."

Junkrat shouted back, "How about you first, ya big f-"

In an instant, Oliver had whipped out a pistol, firing at Junkrat, who just barely fell to the ground to avoid its bullet. In that same amount of time, Pharah had jumped into the air, her rockets blazing as she flew into Oliver, knocking him against the wall as he snarled, managing to knee Pharah in her stomach, forcing her to relinquish her grip as she fell to her own knee for a brief moment.

Oliver dashed down the hallway of the trailer toward Junkrat and Mei, though Junkrat could easily tell that he was headed for her. He swiftly kicked her to the side as Oliver just missed grabbing her, though he angrily managed to grasp Junkrat, throwing him forcefully toward the open door, stomping on his stomach as he came to a stop, his breath evaporating from his lungs in a second.

Pharah was already on her way down to help, but Oliver quickly held Junkrat up by the neck, holding him over the edge, above the certain death of the ground below, shaking his head toward Mei, "You only pay for his life with yours. You know what I want."

Junkrat grasped Oliver's hand, his feet flailing wildly as darkness began to cloud his vision. Mei's eyes looked on in terror, though Pharah was quick to grasp onto her shoulder to prevent her from doing anything brash, though it only seemed to make Oliver's grin wider.

"D-Don't do it!" Junkrat shouted, chokingly, "Th-This is a noble cause, isn't it?"

Mei held onto Daisy's clay pot, tightly, as if hugging Junkrat himself as tears began to well up in her eyes, Pharah's grip increasing against her shoulder. Oliver became annoyed, soon enough, with the wait, and waved Junkrat's increasingly lifeless body around impatiently.

"Come on!" he shouted, angrily, "WHAT'S IT GONNA-"

"Would ya look at that…"

Oliver quickly whipped his neck around toward Junkrat, whose eyes peered down toward his feet. He followed his stare, finding that his foot was just an inch or two away from an oddly-shaped device. He stared at it, confused, as Junkrat pulled out a slender device from his pocket, raising it into the air as his thumb reached up toward a button atop of it.

He winked toward Mei as he slipped his thumb down, a quick set of two shrill chips breaking the air before an explosion suddenly went off in front of them, Pharah clutching Mei and pulling her down into a hug to protect her. Hurriedly, however, Mei scurried away, desperately looking over Pharah's shoulder, horrified to find that both men had disappeared.

"W-…" her voice broke as her mind began to put the pieces together.

Pharah turned to see what she was looking at, her face just as terrified as Mei's was. The two stared at the door speechless, Mei on the verge of a tremor shaking her very heart to the core.

Suddenly, a spiky-haired head descended from the rooftop, Junkrat's face outshined by a giant smile as he peeked in to demonstrate his existence, "Howdy!"

"Jamison!" Mei cried out, picking herself up and washing toward him as he slipped back into the trailer, taking her into a hug as she buried her face in his shoulder, crying.

"There, there," he muttered calmly, trying to comfort her, "I guess there's somethin' good comin' from all my failed experiments- my body takes a lickin' like none other thanks to all the explosions I've had to endure."

He grinned at Pharah, "Might be a different tale for you, though!"

Pharah groaned, shaking her head in dismay as Junkrat continued to pat Mei on the back, "It's all good, sheila; I told ya I'd protect ya, and we ain't home yet!"

Mei nodded against him, sniffling through the tears, "Thank you…Jamison."

"Daaaah," Junkrat sounded, embarrassingly, "Ya don't have ta call me that, ya know… Makes me feel cozy hearin' my real name."

"And now's not the "cozy" place," Pharah muttered, lowly, "We're not done yet. Once Roadhog gets here, we'll-"

Watching out the back of the trailer, she could see that vehicles were swerving in an out in a crazily dizzy maneuver, passengers grabbing onto polearms and guns to fight off the other vehicles. Archibald's convoy had arrived, meeting in with Oliver's, frantically moving through the ranks to, assumingly, find their prize, which Mei was clearly aware was her.

"Let's get up top," Pharah ordered, "I'd rather take our chances up there and have room to move, rather than be stuck in here."


	16. Chapter 16

The three made their way onto the roof just as an explosion knocked the trailer beneath them off kilter, though Pharah was quick to hold o to the others, keeping them stable as she stared off behind them. She quickly noticed Roadhog behind them, speeding along toward them, though, facing the constant threat of other vehicles, he was slowed with each slow-passing rival.

"Okay, Mei? You first," Pharah confirmed as she knelt down to stabilize herself.

"O-Okay," she replied, non-committally, looking up at Junkrat, who shrugged behind a smile.

"Uppercuts won't help ya against explosions, sheila," Junkrat laughed, "Just keep Daisy safe, will ya? We'll be right behind you."

Mei nodded, sadly, turning to see Roadhog driving up beside their truck, his head poking out the window to better judge the distance. It was a few feet drop, causing Mei some anxiety, but any fate was worse than remaining here, she thought.

Suddenly, an explosion shook the entire rig, causing the three to fall to the ground, desperately grabbing on for dear life. Lost in her disorientation, Pharah's senses were suddenly lost to her, though she noticed another large eighteen-wheeler coming up toward the one they were on, her eyes narrowing angrily as a pair of Junker's hopped aboard theirs, rushing after Junkrat and Mei.

Pharah reached up to recover herself, but at that moment, a loud crack of gunfire pierced her ears as her head whipped around, a speedy car driving along their truck, an old man eyeing her from his perch within the sunroof as he aimed at her, keeping her still.

Still, she turned to see Junkrat furiously fighting back the Junker's, with even Mei angrily throwing punches in. The old man cocked his head down toward the two, snarling as he whipped his gun around, leaving Pharah to jump to her feet, rushing down toward her allies in a mad dash.

Suddenly, the man violently bolted to the side as Roadhog came in from the opposite side, knocking the car into the rig. The trailer shook incredibly, leaving Pharah's feet slipping and sliding across the metal roofing, falling o to her face as she jolted her head upward to watch the others.

Between fighting and the shaking, Junkrat lost his balance, falling off of the trailer as Mei quickly tried wrapping a hand around whatever she could, and although she managed a grasp of his shirt, his momentum was two great and the two fell, down toward the perilous sands below.

In a split second, Roadhog slammed the breaks, pulling the other car with him as the two fell heavily into the old man, who watched in shock as his prize had simply fallen into his lap. He turned; Roadhog was right against the car and couldn't do anything to see. Slamming the roof to signal at the driver, he grasped the two of them as the began to speed up, the driver firing a few shots at Roadhog to force him off.

As he did, however, he pulled out a large hook from between him and the door, whipping it over onto the roof of the car, into the hand of Junkrat. Hurriedly fighting off Archibald's clutched, he managed the hook around Mei's belt, yanking at the rope as Archibald hung onto Mei's arm for dear life.

"You fucking rats won't EVER leave me be!" he shouted as Roadhog pulled back on the rope, the motion so quick and furious that Mei just slipped from the man's hold, leaving him yelling out in fury.

As Mei flew through the air, Pharah jumped from the rig, grasping her arms around Mei before landing atop Roadhog's car, sliding off and onto the sand below, desperately wrapping herself around Mei as the two rolled along the ground, finally slowing to a stop as Roadhog sped off, furiously, for Junkrat.

Pharah remained there for a moment, taking rapid, deep breaths in relief as she lay there, clutching Mei's head in her arms. Suddenly, Mei's fists came up, pushing her away as she yanked her head out, getting to her feet and running after the two cars, desperately, until finally realizing its futility.

"JAMISON!" she shouted, her yelling being the only thing keeping her from crying from all the exhaustion she'd endured in such a short time.

She fell to her knees, clutching Daisy tightly against her chest as her tears finally began to stream down her face. The clay pot had already sustained some rather nasty cracks from her escape, and it slowly began to dissolve in her arms, the soil within falling onto her knees and upon the ground below, leaving her with only a delicate flow against her as her cries softened.

She jumped as her head bolted up at Pharah's hand holding her shoulder, her face watching her sadly. She knelt down to Mei's level, her expression serious, though with the most subtle twinge of sorrow at the sight. Mei's face had been scraped, had collected dirt, and her clothes were pretty much decimated. For one so content with the quiet, clean life of a scientist in a lab, the last few days how torn her life asunder.

Though, even between her irregular gasps for air in her tears, Pharah could easily see that she hadn't broken. Not deeply, anyway.

"You're strong," Pharah commented, wistfully, "And those two are strong as well. Don't count them out, alright? They'll be fine."

She reached down, grasping a handful of soil, "Daisy, however… She's the one that needs help, right?"

Mei nodded, slowly, reaching up to dry her tears, though she stopped immediately, noticing her arm had been soiled by dirt, blood, and sweat, leaving her groaning sadly, forced to bear the marks of her sorrow. Pharah quickly pulled off a gauntlet, turning it down so that it could be used as a makeshift pot for now.

"He likes you," Pharah grinned, "God, it's like I've got a kid with a crush on another kid on the playground."

"Excuse me, but I am-," Mei started up, though quickly retreated her speech as she realized the differences in her two differing ages, "N-Never mind…"

She peered off in Jamison's direction, longingly. He'd be fine. Right?

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archibald stared off into the rapidly shrinking distance behind him, watching Mei tumbling toward the ground. His teeth clenched furiously as his head sharply descended down toward Junkrat, the rat's neck held tightly by him. Archibald's face grew surprised, however, as Junkrat watched him with a grin across his face.

"Not today, bogan," he smirked, "My gal's got better things to do than hang out with ya and your shit township."

Archibald's eyes grew wide as he began punching him, furiously, tears welling up in his eyes as his anger boiled over. His blows rained down hard, but though Junkrat flinched, he continued to smile until, finally, Archbald grabbed ahold of his neck, lifting him up and slamming him back against the trunk of the car.

"I oughta let you go and let your corpse rot," Archibald sneered, evilly, "But I'd much rather you be watching when I take that chick of yours and-"

So caught up in focusing on Junkrat, the car slamming into the rear of his vehicle jolted Archibald upright, a giant of a man wearing a hog mask hunched over the wheel, trembling in a fury of his own. Archibald quickly tried to pull Junkrat through the sunroof and into the car with him, but Roadhog flipped a switch at his gear-shift, a massive *CRACK* breaking the atmosphere around them as his car suddenly launched forward, rocking his target violently across the sands, breaking Archibald's grip as he struggled to remain in place, sending Junkrat flying into the vehicle behind.

In a split second, Roadhog swung his hook around, just happening to latch onto Junkrat's neck, though it was the support he needed to pull him over atop the driver's-side window where he caught the body, holding him tightly against the outside of the door as his foot remained to the floor.

Archibald snarled as he pulled out a gun, but Roadhog immediately tore his foot away from the gas, instead launching it into another pedal. The *CRACK* returned, but instead of powering his car, the rocket-powered accelerator beneath Roadhog ripped from the chassis, crashing into the back of Archibald's, and embedding itself deeply in his bumper as the flames tore through the air, sending the car flying off into the distance, knocking Archibald into the edge of the sunroof, blowing the air out from his lungs as his car careened into the distance, toward a rather large mesa.

Roadhog graciously slowed to a stop himself, dropping Junkrat onto the ground, careful not to hit him as he swung his door open. He stood over him, examining his damaged body, his eyes shut, though his lungs were still breathing.

Suddenly, his eyes bolted open as he shouted out, enthusiastically, "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

He quickly hopped to his feet, pacing around dramatically as he articulated, "I MEAN, I WAS THE HERO! WE WERE THE HEROES FOR ONCE! WHAT, WITH THE GETTING RID OF TWO MAJOR KINGPINS, HELPING RETURN THIS PLACE BACK TO THE RIGHT KINDA GREEN, TO-"

He stopped as his gaze met Roadhog, who was staring back at him, blankly, until a single cough left him, along with a short nod. Junkrat suddenly drooped down, kicking the dirt beneath him, nervously.

"Eh… Sorry about, uh, everythin', ya know. I never meant ta be mean or anythin', I just… Ya know…"

His lips contorted as he finished up, "Anyway, eh… I'm glad you came back 'n all. It meant a lot."

Roadhog remained still as Junkrat sulked, quietly, though he eventually reached over with a giant paw of a hand, patting him on the head as he struggled to speak, "Friends. That, and she fixed my motor for me."

Junkrat snickered, "She sure did, huh? Well, let me tell ya, as soon as we get a reward fer all this, I'm definitely gonna-!"

He looked up at Roadhog with a contented look, "Ya know, you keep it all. or you can take it in royalty form once this place starts growin' again and all; however those guys do things."

Roadhog eyed him suspiciously as he turned off into the distance, where they came from, "I think I already found my treasure."

Peering off, Roadhog seemed confused, but simply shrugged as he got back into the car, Junkrat not far behind as he slid across the hood and toward the passenger's side, hopping in, "So! Ya think she likes me? I got this slight feelin', ya know? I mean, she's gorgeous, she can build things; I mean, I could give 'er a hair dryer- what would she do with that?! Probably a whole heckofa lot, huh?!"

He continued yammering along as Roadhog turned the car around, returning back to the others. Just a few days ago, this would have seemed annoying, however, now, it seemed rather like home to him, now. He hated to think this guy had grown on him so much, but he couldn't exactly deny their comradery after all they'd been through.

He turned toward Junkrat, who paused nervously under his stare, "Wh-What are ya lookin' at, mate?"

Unmoved, Roadhog simply lifted a hand, "Cheers…brother."

Junkrat stared at his hand for the longest time, before his eyes shone brightly as he reached over, clutching his hand with a wide smile, "Put it there, uh, brotha!"

Roadhog nodded, "Now let's get your woman."

Quietly, Junkrat grinned, peering away, "Yeah. Let's do that."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei's small box of a laboratory stood pretty much how she left it, the Junkers unable to ever figure out a way in. It stood on, pretty much, as close as you could get to a beach on this continent now, overlooking the soft roar of the waves riding up lazily onto the shore. In the distance, a car approached, tracking a large dust cloud behind in, coming closer and closer into focus as it finally arrived at its destination.

Coming to a stop, Fareeha quickly pushed the door open, weakly rising to her feet as she turned to reach back in, pulling Mei out, who'd fallen into a deep sleep from her exhaustion. Too weak, herself, Fareeha simply grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her along the dirt toward the cube, her own head trailing low in her tire.

Peering up, her eyes met a massive woman standing there, rather shocked at the scene before her. Sure enough, Roadhog sauntered over toward Fareeha's side, pulling a dead-tired Junkrat along in the same fashion, the two of them staring at the woman, her hand nervously running through her pink hair.

"Uh…" she muttered, worriedly, "Overwatch?"

Fareeha nodded slowly, dropping Mei as she walked over to "512", panting with exhaustion as she made her acquaintance, "Pharah. That's Mei, and those two are locals, Roadhog and Junk- Jamison. And you must be-"

"Aleksandra Zaryanova," she replied, unsteadily, peeking over Fareeha's shoulder, "This is, uh, how you say…'regular business'?"

Fareeha turned slightly, watching the scene before her which seemed like anything but the professional task Winston had probably promised this woman. She grinned, softly, turning back to Zarya with a shake of the head.

"You have no idea," was all she could add as a conclusion, "Welcome aboard. Sorry you were late. Nice cannon."

Zarya jumped at the mention of her massive gravity cannon, which had been resting at her feet since she'd arrived. Fareeha slowly retrieved Mei before pulling her into the box, with Roadhog following along with a quick nod of acknowledgement toward Zarya, who returned the gesture, though with more apprehension as she followed along.

"Strannyye, strannyye lyudi…" she muttered to herself in Russian, shaking her head, bewildered.


	17. Chapter 17

Angela walked out onto the helipad, stopping beside Winston as he watched the helicopter descend, though he was mostly forced to by Mei, who was excitedly pointing at him from the window, her excitement over being in helicopters apparently having gone unsated, still. Angela's eyes, however, were scanning for Fareeha, who she found in the back, smiling nervously back her. Angela couldn't help an inaudible sigh, lowering her head in thanks as the helicopter, itself, lowered onto the tarmac, carefully reached the ground.

Immediately, Mei jumped out, running over and jumping into Winston's hug, "I've never wanted to be back home so bad!"

Winston chuckled, nodding, "I know, I know."

As if suddenly realizing her lack of professionalism, Mei hurriedly pulled away, straightening out her clothes and allowing Winston and Angela to examine her. They'd stopped previously to get patched and cleaned up, so while she looked nice enough, Mei's arm and head both had rather substantial bandages wrapped around them. Angela reached over to her, slowly, her eyes unhappily running up and down her body.

"I mean, for your first time at field work…some age ts do t even make it back," Angela noted, bluntly.

Mei snickered mischievously, "Yeah, but I'm a bulldog. Cryo-stasis couldn't do me in; some Junker's wouldn't stand a chance!"

Her high spirits brought a smile to Angela's face, though it quickly vanished as she looked up to see Fareeha exiting the helicopter, a large bandage around her arm and a rather noticeable dressing on her cheek, though she nearly shuddered at what work her clothes were hiding. As soon as Fareeha's feet hit the tarmac, she immediately strode over, leaving Fareeha with a slightly worried look, pulling her arms up in defense.

Instead of resulting in anger, Angela simply pulled herself against her in a hug, burying her head in her chest. Fareeha's face quickly softened as her arms closed around her, her head lowering against the top of her lover's.

"I told you I'd be fine," Fareeha spoke up, smiling.

"You're not," Angela noted, feeling the flick jacket on beneath her shirt, due to having broke some bones from the cannon shot, "But I'm in no mood to argue that you need help. I just need you to hold me."

Thankfully, she'd spoken softly enough that nobody else could hear, Fareeha thought, though Winston and Mei were chatting enough as it was that they probably wouldn't have noticed anyway. Suddenly, Mei spun to her side, pointing into the helicopter to direct Winston, though Fareeha watched as well, Jamison Fawkes grinning nervously as his head popped out from within the helicopter.

She patted Angela's shoulder, signaling for her to turn around as Winston made his way over, offering a handshake, "Ah! So you're the brave lad who helped my team out!"

"Ha ha, I s'pose so," he laughed, poi ting a thumb behind him, "Though he had a lot ta do with it as well."

Winston peered over, seeing Roadhog trying to exit the helicopter with his shorter legs, the pilot graciously allowing a step to emerge from the shell of the vehicle. Winston nodded, examining the two as they stood side by side.

"Well, you have my thanks. It was recommended to me by Mei, here; Roadhog, I hear you have an issue with your lungs, correct?" Winston questioned, sincerely, "We'd like to help everybody down there like this, but you're here, and you saved my best scientist. I figure it's the least we could do."

As if on cue, Roadhog began to cough, violently, hunching over as he braced himself on his knees, shaking his head, "You're very kind, but-"

"Ya better accept, pal!" Jamison jabbed an elbow into his side, "I'll make sure it happens even if ya refuse. Maybe get ya in your sleep or somethin'!"

Roadhog eyed him, unamused, through his mask, though Winston only laughed, "Please, take your time. Until then, please make yourselves at home; I'm sure Mei has enough projects that might could use your expertise."

Jamison cackled to himself at the sound of Winston's words, leaning toward Roadhog, "Expertise! Did ya hear that? We have expertise!"

Mei hurried over, grasping at Jamison's hand as she rapidly pulled him along toward the sliding doors of the Gibraltar facility, her voice giddy with excitement, "Come on! I misplaced my Cerebral Projector, so we'll just have to make a new one from scratch! Oh, and you can meet Snowball! And Tracer! Oh my, you think I'm hyperactive!"

The two disappeared into the base, leaving Winston to wave along Roadhog, directing him to follow along, "Here, let me show you around so you'll feel more at home. Did we ever get a name?"

"Mako," he croaked aloud, quietly.

"Well, Mako, from what I've heard, you're quite good at software development? Is that a skill that's in demand down under?" Winston chuckled, mostly to himself.

The two also disappeared into the facility, leaving only Angela and Fareeha, the two of them half-holding one another as they'd been watching the others. Now, however, Angela returned to her place in Fareeha's arms, remaining there as long as she was able, which, given Fareeha's words, could easily be forever.

"I thought you might hit me for getting hurt," Fareeha laughed quietly.

Angela's head shook against her chest, "I'll wait until you recover."

She smiled, "I get to wait on you for a while you get your rest, huh? So soup, cuddling, watching movies, and all that stuff? Reapplying your dressings, too."

"I'm shocked that you find that kind of thing to be sexy," Fareeha muttered, confused.

"It's like removing lingerie almost," Angela smirked, "Plus, it also fulfills that need for me to care for others, or you, most importantly. I need to make sure my soldier is at one-hundred."

Fareeha tilted her head, eyeing Angela's scalp, "You're not going to try and stop me from my next assignment?"

Angela's face met hers, incredulously, "Was all this an attempt to get me start begging you to stay home?"

With a deep sort of giggle, Fareeha leaned her head down, kissing her forehead, "Of course not. It just goes along with the whole 'thinking you were gonna hit me' thing."

Angela shook her head as she buried it once more against Fareeha's chest, "No; you won't get off that easily, Amari."

\---------------------------------------------------------------

"You'll need this."

Jamison eyed the thick coat skeptically, his eyes tilting up toward Mei, "…why?"

He grabbed it anyway, allowing Mei to begin putting hers on, snuggling in as she zipped it up, "Because it's about to get cooold. It even snows if I leave a glass of water our for too long. Like my little ecosystem!"

Simply doing as instructed, Jamison pushed his hand down the sleeve, his skin irritated by the tight clothing surrounding as his teeth clenched. If wasn't so much pain as it was just a minor crawl of the skin, but it still annoyed him. His mind was quick to forget, however, as the door slid open, a visible gust of frigid air putting out into the hallway. Jamison felt his nose nearby burn off it was so cold, and he rushed his two hands up to his face as Mei waltzed on in, happily, even doing a quick pirouette at one point.

"C-C-C-C-Cool place," he chattered as he took a step I side, the unwitting pun causing a fond giggle from Mei as he turned to escape, though the door had already closed behind him.

Reaching for the door, longingly, he gave up as he couldn't even find a handle, simply turning back to face the artic air. Though, his eyes widened in surprise as Mei quickly began whipping out projects she'd been working on, placing each small mechanism on her desk. Jamison made his way around, trying to decipher what each was to do without touching them, which was difficult, given how similar the materials seemed to be.

"W-W-W-W-Wow," he gawked, slightly, at the complex-looking machines.

Mei nodded happily, "That one's a Chronal Accelerator: Mei Edition, that one's an at-home pet MRI machine, that one's…"

She stared at it, confused, before pulling it over, gingerly pushing a button at its side. Suddenly, the voice of Lúcio burst out at high volume, deafening the two under a wave of, "TIME TO BREAK IT DOWN". Mei instantly shot her hand over to shut it off, laughing nervously as Jamison's fingers remained jammed in his ears.

"Boom box," she muttered with a weak grin, "My bad."

Jamison sighed in relief as Mei's expression dropped, her lips crinkled in dissatisfaction, "Sorry; you must think I'm nuts."

"N-N-N-N-N-No!" he chattered back, quickly, with a loud voice, "I th-th-th-think it's a-a-a-a-awesome! Believe me, this c-c-c-c-coming from a guy who rigged up a b-b-b-b-battery-powered broom that you c-c-couldn't even let go on its own- it ww-w-wouldn't even stand up!"

Mei's eyes watched him from their corners, a soft smile reaching across her face as he tried desperately to withstand the cold simply to be here with her. She snapped a finger and Snowball quickly shot over, whirling around the air as it examined the newcomer carefully.

"Please lower the temperature to a more agreeable one for Mr. Fawkes, Snowball," Mei ordered, the little robot bounding off to accomplish its task.

"S-S-S-S-S-Sorry," Jamison apologized.

She only smiled, "It's fine, just- I don't have people in here very often, so I sort of forget that not everybody likes the cold like I do. Especially you; you've been in Australia your whole life, huh?"

He nodded, looking away as he noticed Snowball swirling around in the air across the room, "Well, w-w-we were up in London one time, steal- eh, I mean, seeing the crown jewels. behind glass, of course, b-b-b-b-!"

He suddenly jerked up as he felt Mei's hands wrapping around his, his eyes wide in shock as she rubbed them quickly, heating them as he she watched intently, focusing as if trying to start a fire. Suddenly, Jamison's body wasn't cold anymore, his face burning with a blush as his hands were encompassed within her own.

"Don't worry, we'll get you warm again," Mei spoke up, excitedly, "It won't be like Australia, but hey, it'll be-"

"N-N-N-N-No, th-th-this is f-f-f-fine," Jamison stammered, though this time was strictly from nerves, rather than the cold.

Mei giggled, as she patted his hands before pulling away, rushing over to her desk, "Okay. So I have the schematics for the Cerebral Projector, but as long as I have you here, maybe we can make it better from the ground… Are you okay?"

Jamison, lost and staring into space, suddenly jumped, nodding rapidly behind his red face, "Y-Yeah! So, uh, what, are we gonna just replicate it, then?"

"Well, maybe, but if we can find any improvements, that'd be great," Mei confirmed, "I have some very unhappy assistants over in engineering, so I like to send my requests with some sort of gift so they don't get too upset about all the tiny parts I have them build- apparently it's still a pain."

Jamison shrugged, "Well, I could do some work right here if ya needed. All I need is a solder and a big enough workbench- I can whip anythin' up, really."

"Awesome!" Mei shouted, pointing at a segment on the blueprints as she looked toward a desk across the room, "We can set you up over there, how's that?"

He nodded, causing an excited shriek from Mei who quickly hopped over to hug him, causing him to freeze in place, "Oh my god, we're gonna be the best team ever!"

As if not realizing what she was doing, she simply hung onto him, lost in her excitement, though the feeling was suddenly replaced by nerves as she felt Jamison's arms slowly wrapping around her in a hug of his own. Her face turned away already, Mei flushed red in surprise, almost shaking, while Jamison held a bravely stoic face, trying no muster up the courage to do such a thing.

"W-What are you-"

"I really don't know," Jamison concluded, shakily, "Just, uh, what you were doin'…"

"I d- I don't know what I did, though…"

"Being brave," he replied, quietly, suddenly a lot less tense as he heard himself saying those words, "I'm just being as brave as you were being."

Her head looked up toward him, confused, "I'm not brave! I sit in here all the time, I avoid any visitors; even when it comes to Overwatch personnel I'm not familiar with, I-"

"I saw quite a different sheila back down in Australia, ya know," Jamison smiled, "She was pretty darn brave. Had a pretty nifty uppercut, too. And she took great care of Daisy."

Mei blushed, though her stare remained true as she watched his face, "And… And I bet she left everything else down there…huh? All that beauty stuff and what not."

Grinning, Jamison answered, "Eh, the Mei I see, right now, she's pretty brave, sure, but she's still pretty beautiful. Downright adorable in that coat of hers, too."

Their eyes met, solid, though Jamison was the only one with the slightest hint of a tremble, "It's, uh… It's a good thing that this Mei is so brave, I-… I don't think I could do what I want to do if she wasn't the one brave enough to-"

Lifting herself onto her toes, Mei sprouted right up to Jamison's face, their lips meeting in a kiss as their matching sets of blush confronted one another among closed eyes. Her arms wrapped around his neck, Mei's kiss was rather innocent, but with the cold around them, the heat at each other's lips was so much more intensified.

Pulling away, Mei's eyes remained closed as the feeling faded away into memory while her eyes shifted away, nervously, "S-Sorry, I-… I'm kind of weird, so I don't meet many people, and when I do, I'm still weird so I don't exactly- I'm very quiet, and when it comes to stuff like this, I can't say that, in my life I've- I mean, I haven't- Y-You know…"

Jamison chuckled, relieving the pressure from both of them, "You're kiddin', right? I'm kinda new to this sorta thing myself, so… I mean, there's nothin' to be scared of- I'm scared too, in a way. I'm weird myself so-"

"So our weirdness just…I don't know, goes together?" Mei questioned as if pondering over some scientific hypothesis.

"I dunno," Jamison muttered, trailing off, "But I do know that I like you. a lot."

"I-I like you too!" Mei shouted in reply, as if feeling the need to meet his statement, though having done so, she immediately returned to a nervous shiver.

Feeling some need to diffuse the situation- something he never ever considered in his line of work- Jamison sighed the weight of the world off of his shoulders, holding onto Mei tightly as he quietly spoke up, "Okay, uh, how about we just slow it down and work on that project. A'right?"

Mei smiled lightly, "O-Okay. Sounds good."

She pulled away and turned to the table, staring down at the blueprints blankly, her arms at her sides as Jamison stood beside her, examining the finer points of the mechanical device he'd once delved into, though without real knowledge of what lay within. So focused was he that he jumped, startled, as Mei's hand quietly took his, their hands held lightly with the others beside the table.

Their eyes met, between nervous laughter by both. It was certainly something to get used to, for both of them.


	18. Chapter 18

Fareeha's clenched teeth seethed as Angela carefully pulled off her bandages, trying her best to massage her tan skin as the adhesive stripped at it. Lowering her head, Fareeha did her best to remain quiet and still, but the skin at her back was still tender, and her nerves burst in pain as the fresh skin wrung out.

"Sorry, love," Angela muttered, sadly, "You've already taken over the dose of pain reliever- I can't exactly give you more."

"It's fine," Fareeha spoke in, what she thought was, a soft voice, but it was more like a growl.

Angela frowned, but she finally removed the large dressing that covered most of the soldier's back, her eyes squinting at how torn and raw her skin had become. She carefully disposed of the old dressing, stuffing it in a bin nearby, before shaking a small canister of aerosol, spraying disinfectant over her back.

"You should probably let it breathe if you've had this on since you stopped in India. How is Utopaea?"

Fareeha shrugged, lightly, "Its hospital rooms are nice."

Angela sighed, her knee resting on the bed beside her lover, giving her enough space to reach around her head in a hug, "I'm sorry."

"No, no," Fareeha sighed, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be upset in the first place, neither should I be taking it out on you."

Groaning, Angela answered, "Aren't I the one person you should be open enough with for those reasons? Somebody to talk to and all that?"

Fareeha sighed, listlessly, as Angela rubbed her cheek against her scalp, "Come on. What ails you? You completed the mission. You brought Mei back, safe, and also escorted something that could save an entire continent."

Chuckling under her breath, Fareeha raised her head, "Maybe it's just my mom, I don't know. I had Lena run the stats- in terms of efficiency, that mission was run at, about, thirty percent."

She gently pulled away from Angela, though the doctor remained kneeling on the body, frowning sadly as Fareeha continued, "More than that, though… I hate you having to see me like this."

Angela smiled, sweetly, "You're my hero. It's my job to make sure you get better. I understood that when I fell in love with you."

"Well, yeah," Fareeha muttered, lowly, "But you said you'd be the one difficult to love. I never stipulated how difficult it'd be to love me."

Angela eyed her, curiously, "And who said it was difficult?"

Fareeha paused, slightly in her own bewilderment, stuttering to find an answer, "W-Well, I mean… I know you'd rather have me here than off being in dangerous situations. I know it can't be easy to see my body like-"

"I don't particularly care," Angela shrugged, "You could come home in a jar; as long as you're alive, I couldn't care less in what form you're in."

She grinned, "I'd just carry you around in my briefcase all day."

Fareeha frowned, unconvinced, but Angela quickly scooted over, sitting in front of her. She watched her hair dangling there, parting gently as Angela reached her hand over, holding her chin as soft as she could, lifting her head to face her. Her cheeks painted red, Fareeha's eyes stared off into the distance, not wanting Angela to see her, but the doctor only smiled, grasping a handkerchief to clear her face.

"Even if you happened to not be my hero any more, I'd still love you," Angela confirmed with a smile, "Hell, if I could fly myself; if I could fight my own battles, I'd still love you. So don't think seeing you weak makes me think- If anything, I love you so much more, knowing you're so fine with being so vulnerable around me."

Fareeha remained staring away, unsure, but Angela quickly reached her head over, lightly kissing her lover's tender lips, smiling as she pulled away, "Just keep those lips safe, okay? And your eyes. You know, don't make it a point to see how much of yourself you can lose, alright?"

Lowering her head, Fareeha's shoulders shook as she chuckled to herself, leaving Angela with a satisfied smile as she worked her way off of the bed, lifting Fareeha's arm as she examined her other scrapes. Running her finger over the bruised skin, Fareeha cringed, her teeth seething once again.

"On a-"

"On a scale from one to ten," Fareeha finished with a boyish smile, "I'd say a five."

Angela stared at her, unenthused, lowering her lover's arm, "You think you're being funny?"

Fareeha shot a steady glance over her shoulder at Angela, "I could have said a ten."

She cleared her throat, putting on the thickest German accent that she could, "When you zay ten, are youzzaying zat there'z no pain in exzistanze that'z worze than zis?"

Angela remained still, her eyes narrowed as she looked on, unimpressed, though Fareeha began to laugh, slowing herself as she reached up to her shoulder, a quick "ow" breaking through her laughter as she hunched over. Angela silently turned to grab her prepped bandages, beginning to dress up Fareeha's back without a word.

She made sure to push tightly against the adhesive, though in Fareeha's aftershocks of sudden chuckles, there was more than once where Angela had to reapply a section. As her hands worked their way down either side of Fareeha's bare back, finally encasing the massive wound beneath soft cloth, Angela turned away, pulling off her gloves in silence.

"Come on," Fareeha pleaded, lightly, turning around on the bed so that her legs fell off toward the floor as she leaned forward, holding her knees, "I'm sorry, okay? It was funny though, I thought."

Angela turned slightly, her eyes staring over her shoulder, meeting Fareeha's before returning to her hands, rubbing each other to get rid of the latex-y afterwear. Fareeha watched her curiously, unsure of her game, but it became rather clear soon after once Angela turned around toward her, walking up so that she stood right in front of her, between her legs.

She reached up to grab ahold of her shoulder, rubbing it as her eyes examined her, her voice quietly reaching out, "And how does this feel?"

Fareeha thought for a moment, looking up at Angela's face, "I don't know, it just feels-"

She took a breath as Angela suddenly pushed her shoulder down, though not hard. Fareeha's body barely bounced back up, though even if it had, she wouldn't have gone anywhere. Angela followed along crawling up onto the bed, her hands and knees bracing against the mattress as she stared down at her partner, still somewhat blankly.

Normally, it was so natural for Fareeha to give herself so easily to this woman, but when Angela took the initiative, it would usually surprise her enough for her voice to escape in only weak attempts at speech, "D-Doctor, I-"

Angela shushed her as her hand reached up to Fareeha's stomach, massaging her skin as her head reached down to kiss her lips, eyes closed, though Fareeha's wide-eyes quickly followed suit as Angela's pair sucked her in. Making quick passes from either lip, Angela made sure to kiss beyond that tender slit of skin, sucking over onto her cheeks, over and atop her nose, but always sure to return to Fareeha's lonely pair.

In a moment, Fareeha's hand reached up to clutch at the back of Angela's head, holding it firmly in place, causing a soft moan to escape into her mouth as her tongue reached out, joining Angela's as the two's minds began to melt from the burning at their lips. Their mouths would open, find the other's tongue, and try to close atop of it, sucking ever so gently as a trail of saliva poured down Fareeha's face.

Suddenly, Angela's hand slowly reached down Fareeha's stomach, crawling lithely underneath her sweat pants, fiddling with the strap of her panties as if in indecision before deciding to slither atop of them, Angela's fingers holding firmly against the skin upon Fareeha's crotch until sinking into that burning fissure.

As if her entire body were on fire, Fareeha's breath became heated, her mouth soon unable to continue their making out as her heart began to rush, her breathing becoming too light, fearing that she'd suffocate within Angela's lips. Her ragged breathing continuing, Angela's face remained against hers, kissing down her cheeks and against her neck, lapping at the trail of saliva that had stained her body.

Receiving the flat end of Angela's fingers Fareeha immediately jumped as she received the pointed ends, digging modestly into her through her panties as Angela's heated breath came against her ears, her voice a supple whisper, "On a scale of one to ten, how good does this feel?"

Fareeha's heavy breaths went on as her eyes clenched shut, tightly, as pleasure ran up her body, "S-Six."

"Hmm," Angela groaned aloud in thought, her lips reaching up to suck at Fareeha's ear, a *pop* shooting through the air as she pulled at her earlobe until it fell back in place, "What about this?"

Angela's fingers expertly slipped behind her panties at the sides, quickly crawling into Fareeha's damp chasm, running along the heated ridges that lined her insides. A prolonged, light moan escaped her lips as Angela worked along her, though in a split second, a massive, succulent yelp escaped her lips as her eyes shot open, as if every nerve within her suddenly sparked in unison.

"T-Ten!" Fareeha shouted, grasping at the bed sheets, her body writhing underneath Angela, whose devilish grin shone upon her like a spotlight.

"So, you're saying that's the most pleasurable thing in existence?" Angela muttered quietly, citing her earlier phrase, so carelessly repeated by her lover.

While unable to think too hard, Fareeha instinctively know that those teasing words meant far more than she'd let on. She grappled the sheets with both hands in anticipation, though Angela's slowly left her, leaving her empty, and with a pleading look on her face.

Angela smirked back at her, having scooped some of her honey in her fingers, her thumb swirling around the mixture before her fingers returned, forcing Fareeha's body to quickly tense up as another wet moan escaped her lips, though this time, she managed to keep eye contact with Angela, the doctor grinning ear to ear at the effect she was having on this strong body beneath her.

As soon as her thumb ran up the length of the hood above Fareeha's lips, a sudden tremor coursed through her body, her hand immediately shooting down to grasp Angela's wrist as tears began to form at her eyes from the suddenly intense pleasure, "TEN! …TEN!"

Angela giggled, though her fingers never stopped working. As her thumb massaged her bud, her fingers ran in and out of her, a trail of honey escaping with every pump of her fingers, accompanying the rhythmic moans coming from above as Fareeha squirmed away from Angela's hand. The doctor was too quick, however, her hand following her as her head quickly fell to Fareeha's shoulder, kissing at her neck to keep her caught between her hand and her lips, Fareeha's entire body sprinting forward toward release.

In a hot, heavy second, her chest suddenly jumped into the air, arching in pleasure as her nerves burst, her body exploding into orgasm as Angela's fingers brought her to the brink of madness, if for but a few heavenly moments. Her heavy breaths were the loudest sound in the room as her body flopped back down onto the mattress, Angela's hand pulling itself from her lover, running up her crotch and out of her pants, leaving a trail of Fareeha's honey behind it.

Her head had already gone white, unaware of anything in the world around her, except for the gentle kissing at her neck. Angela's kissing. As she wearily took in breath after breath, Fareeha's head fell to the side, toward Angela, smelling her hair as her eyes weakly strained to see her gorgeous locks.

"Not bad for alternative medicine, huh?" Angela mumbled, rather goofily, between kisses.

Fareeha breathed, "I can't say I wouldn't mind finding out whether or not I can overdose."

Angela grinned, her quick breath escaping her nose replacing her kisses at Fareeha's neck, "This is still a check-up, ma'am. I can't prescribe any drugs until we have a proper exam."

Fareeha reached over to grab hold of Angela's hand pulling it up to her mouth, gently sucking her fingers as her eyes closed lightly, "Then why do you keep kissing me or doing what you do to me?"

"Shut up," Angela grinned as she pulled her hand away.

Simply smiling it off, Fareeha noticed Angela's exposed ear, reaching her lips up to kiss her earlobe, an annoyed voice escaping Angela's lips, "You know I hate that."

"Nowhere on my body is off limits," Fareeha admitted.

Angela frowned, "And I'm not you. Ears, feet, knees; you know where I don't want you fooling around."

"Knees?" Fareeha questioned, curiously.

Sighing, Angela looked away, "Long story."

"I've got time."

"No you don't," Angela grinned, "We need to get out of here. There could be any number of accidents with Mei and those two hooligans running around for the time being."

Slowly, Angela pushed herself up, but Fareeha quickly wrapped her arms around her, pulling her back down atop of her. Angela groaned, submitting to her restraint, albeit unenthusiastically.

"Don't leave," Fareeha muttered, weakly, "Isn't it your turn?"

Angela smiled, "Tell you what. Get better, and you'll get a reward, okay? Maybe that'll be our deal. Whenever you come home from assignment, you have to get better and then I'll treat you. That should help you heal quicker, huh?"

Fareeha sighed, sadly, "I suppose so…"

With another grin, Angela reached down to kiss her nose again before pushing herself down and off the bed, fixing her outfit as she stared down at Fareeha's half-naked body, wet from her cheeks down to her stomach.

"Get a quick shower," Angela muttered, "I'll be in there to assist you."

Winking, she made her way toward the door, "Doctor's orders."


	19. Epilogue

Deep in the endless sands of Australia, despite the agents of Overwatch having departed, there was still something foreign here. Some sort of presence, obviously not supposed to be here. This ghostly being walked along the dirt, the only thing to denote their presence being the soft cracking of the dirt beneath their feet as they walked along, their destination just a few hundred feet away.

There, a car sat mangled, nearly torn apart after having careened into the wall just beyond it, the vehicle itself beyond any and all recognition. The only movement coming from this heap was a light trail of smoke blowing up into the sky, quickly evaporating as it entered the light.

Suddenly, a hand emerged, burst through the wreckage as an arm followed, trembling mightily as it clutched around at anything it could grasp onto, finally pulling as the head of a man suddenly emerged from the pile of metal and dirt.

Archibald gasped, desperate for air, simply lying there as his body rapidly rose and fell as his lungs worked overtime, trying to find enough oxygen to keep him alive, having nearly suffocated. As he gradually recovered, his breathing slowed, leaving him to relax on the cracked earth below, breathing more and more normal as his eyes closed with his head on the sand.

Suddenly, the sound of cracking dirt caught his ear, and he quickly whipped around. Nothing. His brow furrowed as he looked on, confused, still looking around, though his eyes locked onto something half-buried in the sand, just beside the site of the wreckage.

He crawled over, his legs far too broken to assist him any, reaching for the small, spherical device, his hand sliding against the dirt, shaking as his weak body exerted all the energy it had. Then, in a second, a shooting, vicious pain met the top of his hand, his head raising into the air as he screamed in pain.

"GAAAAAH!" his blood-curdling scream sounded as he looked down at his hand.

It was physically bent down into the earth below it, as if something were trying to push its way through the entirety of his hand, a twisting motion breaking at his skin as his screaming grew in a horrendous pain.

Suddenly, a pulse of electricity ran up from his hand, the high-heel of a shoe becoming visible as the source of his pain, the leg above it slowly coming into view as well as Archibald's head rose up, his eyes squinting as the sun came more and more into view.

"Tu mano…" came a female voice, another twisting coming at Archibald's hand as his teeth clenched, painfully.

"Who…the…fuck-"

The foot that had tried tearing through his hand immediately spun upward, clocking him in the face as his body flew backward, knocking him onto his back as he immediately retrieved his hand, pulling it into his chest to comfort the pain, though his eyes remained staring up into the dark silhouette that nearly met the sun.

"Mira tu idioma," the female voice said as hit bent down, reaching for the sphere that sat nestled in the dirt.

Archibald suddenly snarled, reaching for it himself with his good hand, but in a second, the silhouette whipped out a knife, shoving it into his hand.

"GAAAAAAAAH!" Archibald shouted again, writhing in pain as he stared as his hand, horrified.

The silhouette watched for but a moment, pitilessly, before grabbing for the sphere, dropping it into her pocket as she stood over the man, still rolling back in forth as he tried his best to stop the pain. Despite whatever he tried, the silhouette had other plans, regardless.

She pulled out a gun, Archibald immediately frozen in horror as his eyes met the barrel, his eyes wide as he tried his best to comprehend what exactly was going on, "W-W-What…"

"Who made this?" the woman spoke, through a rough Spanish accent.

Sufficiently freaked the fuck out, Archibald stammered a reply, "I-I-I think O-Overwatch! Th-The girl there!"

The shadow nodded, peering down into her pocket, "Thank you. for telling me."

She shrugged before turning around to leave, Archibald frantically shouting out, "W-Wait! D-Don't- Please! Help me!"

The silhouette dropped her head, almost in annoyance, as she turned around, slowly, approaching the near-dead man once more, "You want help? To be free from el dolor?"

Archibald's grinned cheekily, nodding rapidly, "Y-Yes! Yes! Please! Yes!"

The shadow groaned, just a moment before pulling her hand up and shooting the man in the face, his head exploding into a rather un-elegant pile of filth. She sighed as she holstered his gun, turning yet again to leave, her steps leaving nothing behind but the cracks beneath her as her body slowly began to disappear into the landscape

She reached up a hand toward her ear, waiting for a moment before a scruff voice appeared within her skull, "I hope you have good news, Sombra."

"The best," she replied, with a slight excitement, "Go ahead and schedule that ballroom affair."

"Consider it done."

The voice clicked offline as Sombra took a deep breath, her fingers rolling the metallic ball in her pocket as she walked back toward the beach.

"Hablando del reina de Roma..."


End file.
